
Class __^Ej33j^ 

Book 

Copyright N°_ 




COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



HENRY ROSENBERG 




^yj^y^^>^£^uty^ eyt^^ 



HENRY ROSENBERG 



1824-1893 



TO COMMEMORATE 
THE GIFTS OF HENRY ROSENBERG 

TO GALVESTON 
THIS VOLUME IS ISSUED BY THE 

ROSENBERG LIBRARY 




GALVESTON, TEXAS 
MCMXVIII 






Copyright, 191 8, by 
The Board of Directors of the Rosenberg Library 



FEB -3 1919 



ie)CI.A5U2l2 



^"U.*^ I 



FOREWORD 

Henry Rosenberg came to Galveston, a Swiss boy 
of nineteen, with no money but with native ability. 
After fifty years of life in our city as a prosperous 
merchant and banker, an unpretentious and generous 
man, and a useful and public-spirited citizen, Mr. 
Rosenberg passed away in his sixty-ninth year in 
1893, leaving by his will a very large part of his 
wealth for wisely chosen public purposes in Gal- 
veston, the principal amount being the residuum for 
a free public library. The people of Galveston honor 
the memory of Mr. Rosenberg; they are proud of 
him as a good citizen, and are grateful of heart for 
his gifts and bequests. This has been shown by pub- 
lic honors and tributes in the days following his de- 
cease, by the annual celebration of Rosenberg Day 
for many years, by the fine heroic bronze statue ac- 
quired by popular subscription and placed in front 
of the Rosenberg Library in 1906, and by the care 
our people take to impress "their children and their 
children's children" with respect and gratitude to 
"Our Benefactor." The Rosenberg Library Board 
of Directors now deems it fitting to commemorate 
the public gifts and bequests of Henry Rosenberg by 
means of this volume. 

ROSENBERG MEMORIAL BOOK COMMITTEE 

William T. Armstrong, Chairman 
R. Waverley Smith 
Edward Randall 

May, 1918 Frank C. Patten, Librarian 



CONTENTS 

Foreword vil 

Memorial Book Committee 

Part I 
BIOGRAPHY 

Henry Rosenberg 3 

Hon. Robert G. Street 

Letter from Henry Rosenberg's 

Native Village 13 

Heinrich Aebli, President of the Commune of Bilten 

Eaton Chapel 17 

The Henry Rosenberg Free School ... 19 

The Sorrow of the City 23 

Inscription on the Rosenberg Monument in 
Loudon Park Cemetery, Baltimore, Mary- 
land 29 

Tribute at the Funeral Services at 

Rosenberg School 3^ 

Hon. Robert G. Street 

Henry Rosenberg: A POEM 35 

Clarence Ousley 

Henry Rosenberg : a poem 37 

John P. Sjolander 



CONTENTS 
Founder's Day 39 

Rosenberg Day Address, May I, 191 1 . . .41 
Hon. Yancey Lewis 

The Statue of Henry Rosenberg .... 55 

Address at the Unveiling of the Statue of 

Henry Rosenberg 57 

Hon. Robert G. Street 

Chronology 69 

Part II 
BEQUESTS 

List of the Gifts and Bequests of Henry 

Rosenberg for Public Purposes ... 89 

The Will of Henry Rosenberg 91 

The Administration of the Rosenberg Estate 97 

The Galveston Orphans' Home 105 

Grace Episcopal Church 109 

The Letitia Rosenberg Woman's Home . .113 

The Galveston Young Men's Christian 

Association 115 

The Rosenberg Drinking Fountains . . .123 

The Texas Heroes' Monument 125 

The Texas Heroes' Monument 129 

"Galveston News," November 2, igi3 



CONTENTS 

Part III 

ROSENBERG LIBRARY 

The Library Bequest: The Twenty-first 

Clause OF THE Will 141 

Articles OF Incorporation 143 

The Charter 145 

The Board OF Trustees, i 900-1 903 . . . .149 

The Board OF Directors, 1 900-1 904 . . . . 149 

The Board OF Trustees, 191 8 150 

The Board OF Directors, 191 8 150 

Members of the Board of Trustees, i 900-1 9 18 151 

Members of the Board of Directors, 

1900-1918 153 

General Financial Statement 155 

Library Income and Expenditures, February, 

1901, TO December,*i9I7 157 

Library Income and Expenditures for the 

Year Ending December 31, 19 1 7 . . .158 

Assets: The Library Endowment Fund, Janu- 
ary I, 1918 159 

Assets: Property Used for Library Purposes, 

January 1,1918 161 

Assets: Summary, January I, 19 1 8 . . . .161 

Laying the Corner-stone of Rosenberg 

Library 163 

List of Articles Deposited in the Corner- 
stone 165 

[xi] 



CONTENTS 

The Dedication of Rosenberg Library, June 

22, 1904 

Dedicatory Address 

Hon. Marcellus E. Kleberg 

The Rosenberg Library Building . 

The Development of the Library , 
Frank C. Patten, Librarian 

Historical and Statistical Summary 



169 
173 

179 
187 

223 



[XIO 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Part I 

BIOGRAPHY 

PLATE 

Henry Rosenberg Frontispiece 

1 The Birthplace of Henry Rosen- 

berg Facing p^g^ 3 

2 Henry Rosenberg in 1 89 1 (Age 67) 

at his Birthplace .... " 3 

3 His Childhood Home in Bilten . " 3 

4 Rudolf Rosenberg, 1798-1862 . " 3 

5 The Village Church of Bilten . . " 13 
The Village of Bilten . . . Headpiece, page 13 

6 Eaton Chapel and Trinity Church . Facing page 17 

7 The Henry Rosenberg Free School " 19 

8 Henry Rosenberg, Age 21 ... " 23 

9 Henry Rosenberg, Age about 50 . " 23 

10 The Residence of Henry Rosen- 

berg, Galveston " 23 

11 Memorial Resolutions of the Gal- 

veston City Council .... " 29 

12 The Rosenberg Monument, Lou- 

don Park Cemetery, Baltimore, 

Maryland " 29 

13 Rosenberg Day, 1913 .... " 39 

[XIII] 



PLATE 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



14 "Our Benefactor" (Statue in Front 

of Rosenberg Library) . . . Facing page 55 

15 Unveiling the Statue of Henry 

Rosenberg " 57 

The Galveston City Seal . . Tailpiece, page 85 

Part II 
BEQUESTS 

16 The Executors and Attorney of the 

Rosenberg Estate .... Facing page 97 

17 The Galveston Orphans' Home . " 105 

18 Grace Episcopal Church ... " 109 

19 Interior View of Grace Episcopal 

Church " 109 

20 The Letitia Rosenberg Woman's 

Home " 113 

21 The Galveston Young Men's Chris- 

tian Association " 115 

22 Y. M. C. A. — Office and Reception 

Room " 115 

22 Y. M. C. A. — Gymnasium ... *' 115 

23a The Rosenberg Drinking Fountains " 123 

23b The Rosenberg Drinking Fountains " 123 

24 Monument to the Heroes of the 

Texas Revolution of 1836 . . *' 125 

25 The Heroes' Monument on the Day 

of Unveiling '* 125 

26 Bronze Panel of the Heroes' Monu- 

ment : The Defense of the Alamo 

(South Side) " 125 

Cxiv;] 



(Two 






129 


(Two 






129 


. Tailpiece, page 138 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

26 Bronze Panel of the Heroes' Monu- 

ment: Massacre at Goliad (East 

Side Facing page 125 

27 Bronze Panel of the Heroes' Monu- 

ment : General Houston's Charge 
at the Battle of San Jacinto 
(West Side) " 125 

27 Bronze Panel of the Heroes' Monu- 

ment: The Surrender of Santa 
Anna to General Houston at San 
Jacinto (North Side) ... " 125 

28 The Heroes' Monument 

Views from the East) . 

29 The Heroes' Monument 

Views from the West) . 

The Texas State Seal . 

Part III 
ROSENBERG LIBRARY 

30 Rosenberg Library, from a Draw- 

ing by Vernon Howe Bailey . . Facing page 141 

31 The Rosenberg Library Board of 

Directors, 1900-1904 ... " 149 

32 Laying the Corner-stone of Rosen- 

berg Library " 163 

33 The Corner-stone, showing Inscrip- 

tions " 165 

34 Rosenberg Library in 1906 . . " 169 

35 Rosenberg Library in 19 1 6 . . " 179 

36 Rosenberg Library in 19 10 and in 

1913 " 179 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

37 Rosenberg Library — East End and 

South Side Facing 

38 Rosenberg Library — Front En- 

trance *' 



39 Rosenberg Library ( Looking North 
on Tremont Street) 

39 Branch Library for Colored People 

40 Rosenberg Library Plans — First 

and Second Floors . 

41 Main Corridor .... 



42 Periodical Reading Rooms and 
Corridor 



43 Book Room, showing Reference 
Desk 



44 Book Room, showing Card Catalog 

and Lending Counter 

45 Offices of Librarian and First 

Assistant 



46 Cataloging and Work Rooms . 

47 Stairways to Second Story . 

48 Lecture Hall in Second Story . 

49 Children's Department — Entrance 

and Reading Room . 

50 Children's Department — Reading 

Room and Story Room . 

51 Wood Carvings on Settles in Chil 

dren's Reading Room 

52 Mantels, First and Second Stories 



page 179 

179 

179 
179 

187 
187 

187 

187 

187 

187 

187 
187 
187 

187 

187 

187 
187 



Part I 
BIOGRAPHY 




z 

en ^ 

o % 
Pi; t: 

o ^ 

c 

w 2 

< ■ 

Cu 

X 
h 



O I- 

-o 

oj -O _ 

2 " o 

t.' c 

E «•§ 
^ I « 






U 



? o o c 

o 



c . 



« ."5 



re •-- '^ 
>..> g 

« Qj .— . O 

OJ u oj o 

K -c -= -c 

^ « c =" 
_o re o 

Is ^ bc 

.5 ^ c 
re u o 

u C 



u 



u 



O 



< 





/ 


> 


''• ''4JI 


* * 




''^:^^%i^dH 


4 


? 


IPBI 


f£^i 


1^ 


1^ 


jJ^rBI 




_ 


pr-.-^ 


^^^^^Hf 4^' J^ 








, -■ ■ 1 










- - ? * : 


'** * ■ 

J*' 


ft 






v. 








iii 


,, .„,. 1 





HENRY ROSENBERG IN 1891 

Affe 67 

At his Birthplace 



Plate No. 2 




w 




f— 1 


H^ 


1 


c 


HH 




rr^ 


OJ -•" 




~ 0) 




— M 


Z 


CO w 


l-H 


"o r;:: 




c > 


o 




c^ 


^^^ 






z 


>4- -M >+H 
O C 


w 




CO 


2 'S "a 


o 


hoi 
Pre: 
r an 


Cr^ 






>-' 


" ~ " 


D< 






t to 
berg 
g's t 


X 


X C i- 
tl u <u 




C g X: 


fe 


:-« 5 


o 


thei 

rs. 

Ros 


w 


«SS ^ 


1— ( 


.-TSS 


o 


bXl C 
1^ nj *-- 


K 


osenbe 
; Mr. 
e righ 


Q 


O 


p^l-s 


O 


b2 2 


X 


C c« " 


Q 


K'zr 


J 








:i: 


W C 


u 






i- ra 


w 


i> ^^ 


^ 


C 


H 


o 




RUDOLF ROSENBERG, 1798-1862 
Father of Henry Rosenberg 



Plate No. 4 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

BY HON. ROBERT G. STREET 

COMING to Galveston when he was nineteen 
years old and abiding there until his death, a 
period of fifty years ; beginning as a clerk and 
on attaining his majority buying out his employer, 
Mr. Rosenberg's life was thenceforth that of an active 
and public-spirited business man, prominently iden- 
tified with most of the city's financial institutions and 
taking a leading part in all measures for the upbuild- 
ing of the city itself. He was for many years, until 
his banking interests claimed his chief attention, one 
of the leading dry-goods merchants of Texas. He 
had no taste for partisan politics but was ever ready 
to render his unpaid service as a public-spirited busi- 
ness man for the advantage of his fellow citizens in 
promoting the welfare of the city, always dear to 
him. He rendered notable service in this respect as 
president of the Board of Harbor Improvements, a 
work begun by the city in 1871 for the removal of the 
inner bar of Galveston Harbor. It was carried to 
successful completion under his administration. 

Such a life does not present those dramatic inci- 
dents that arrest the attention of the casual observer, 

[3] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

but is rather one the fullness of whose import is to be 
gathered only from an intimate knowledge of its 
multitudinous activities and the manner in which 
from day to day the responsibilities they devolved 
were met and discharged. He was too self-reliant 
and independent to have had many intimate friends, 
and such as he had have now all passed away. He 
was essentially a man of affairs, and too engrossed 
with private business and the business aspect of pub- 
lic affairs to have time or inclination for social life, 
which he touched but lightly, though always with 
characteristic dignity and affability. Few have lived 
a life that was more an open book to all, yet, though 
frank and candid both in business and social life, he 
had no fondness for talking about himself, even of his 
early struggles — so often a pardonable weakness in 
self-made men. Though genial and possessed of a 
sense of humor, thus brightening and lightening the 
path of daily life for himself and others, he was in 
no sense an eccentric and has left no fund of anecdote 
behind. Though Mr. Rosenberg's life would always 
have furnished stimulation and encouragement to the 
young as a typical illustration of what it is in the 
power of all young men to accomplish by the exercise 
of the virtues of temperance in all things, of a high 
sense of honorable dealing, of untiring energy, self- 
denial and frugality, joined with a brave heart and 
high aspirations, yet the elements of character that 
chiefly endear his memory to his fellow citizens were 
made most conspicuously apparent toward his life's 

1:4: 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

close, and were fully revealed only by his will. It 
sometimes casts a flood of light on one's character to 
know the things of his greatest antipathy, and with 
him these were the poser and the idler. Though his 
frequent charities and acts of philanthropy during 
the whole course of his life were necessarily known 
to a few, yet he shrank from their public recognition, 
and it was not until it neared the end that, his large 
means giving him the opportunity and the larger 
proportions assumed by his benefactions attracting 
general notice, he was prominently brought before 
the public eye in this relation. 

But it would be a mistake to think that Mr. Rosen- 
berg's liberal devotion of his means to objects of 
public beneficence was manifested only by his will, 
and hence, possibly, to indulge the reflection, often 
unjust, to which such an act, standing alone, some- 
times gives rise; for, not to mention his large dona- 
tion to the building of Eaton Chapel in memory of 
his old friend and pastor, Rev. Benjamin Eaton, 
first rector of Trinity parish at Galveston, he 
built the Rosenberg School during his lifetime. Mr. 
Rosenberg's will was executed in 1892; the Rosen- 
berg School was finished some two or three years 
earlier. He had superintended its construction daily, 
and after the school was opened was a frequent 
visitor, not on formal occasions only but during 
school hours and at recess. To one who remembers 
the deep interest he took in the construction of the 
building and the affectionate and playful relations 

[5] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

between himself and the children of the school, re- 
flecting happiness no less in his countenance than in 
theirs, it is natural to believe that the sentiments of 
altruism and service thus given an opportunity for 
freer development and finding in his heart congenial 
soil, there acquired by their exercise a new vigor that 
in some degree influenced his bequests to the city of 
Galveston. So true is it that Nature makes rich re- 
sponse to those who reduce to practice the noblest 
sentiments of the human heart, thus enriching him 
who wisely gives. "A good diffused and in diffusion 
ever more intense." It was not, however, without a 
deep knowledge of the human heart that the greatest 
of English poets bade the people listen to the will of 
their benefactor before pronouncing judgment on his 
memory. And when it is seen that this final act is in 
keeping with the story of the inner life of him who 
did it, as that story was known to those who knew him 
best, such a will becomes a mirror of life and char- 
acter. Indeed, a distinguished gentleman delivering 
the address for 191 1, at the Library on "Rosenberg 
Day," one who had never known Mr. Rosenberg nor 
even lived in the same city with him, but whose gen- 
erous interest had been excited merely by reading a 
copy of his will, undertook, from that instrument 
alone, to outline the lineaments of his character and 
reconstruct a picture of him as he in truth existed. 
So true to life was the sketch thus eloquently drawn 
and so deep the appreciation of the man as he was 
personally known to many of those present, it was 

[6] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

difficult for them to understand that it was not a pic- 
ture drawn from life and the gifted orator one of his 
most intimate friends. If one will but consider the 
will as a true exponent of the man, the elements must 
indeed have been divinely mixed in him. His for- 
tune, a large one for the time and place, had been 
accumulated exclusively by his own industry and tal- 
ents. After making provision for his surviving wife 
and a few personal legacies, his will breathes the 
spirit of service in the recognition that he held the 
bulk of his estate in trust for the use and benefit of the 
people of Galveston, and proceeds to apply it accord- 
ingly in the manner prompted by his own sentiments 
and directed by his practical sagacity — a Monument 
to the Heroes of the Texas Revolution of 1836, a 
perpetual appeal to Patriotism, Honor, Courage, and 
Devotion ; a Woman's Home, a refuge for the aged 
and infirm and as a tribute to the memory of his wife 
for forty years, with whose aid he had made his for- 
tune; an Orphans' Home, an evidence of his loving 
care for helpless and innocent children; drinking 
fountains for man and beast, supplying the need and 
convenience of water for general use and for the re- 
lief of domestic animals; the Young Men's Christian 
Association, for the instruction, training, and recre- 
ation of boys and young men; a church at Galveston 
and one in his native village in Switzerland, and a 
large gift in money as a permanent charitable fund 
for use in the latter place; a donation to the Ladies' 
Aid Society of the Lutheran Church at Galveston, 

C7] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

and the rest and residue of his estate, about $400,000, 
constituting the greater part of the entire estate, to 
found a great free public library at Galveston. What 
a variety of admirable sentiments to animate the soul 
of one man! What a variety of suffering relieved! 
What civic needs supplied! What testimony to his 
own religious conviction! What pious regard for the 
home of his childhood! What wise appreciation by 
a business man of the value of a great free public 
library, where instructive and entertaining lectures 
are provided, and where, with all its wealth of oppor- 
tunity, no charge can possibly be incurred! 

It is not likely that there is any city in which these 
gifts would not have supplied a more or less urgent 
need, none to which they would not have been wel- 
come; but by his practical sagacity the provision 
made for each is, by common consent, proportionately 
what it should have been in Galveston. In the wants 
they supply and the opportunities they afford for 
higher civic and individual life, it is no exaggeration 
to say that they are generations in advance of what 
would have been possible from public resources 
alone. Among the beneficent purposes they serve, it 
is not to be overlooked that they serve all alike, and 
must ever constitute an appeal for unity and harmony 
of feeling and a bond of sympathy and an inspiration 
to cooperation in all that makes for higher and better 
living. May not the essence of Henry Rosenberg's 
gifts to the city of Galveston be found in this ten- 
dency to unify and harmonize its people, in this age 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

of strife and bitterness between classes, into one class 
whose aim shall be civic and individual righteous- 

ness? 

On the completion of the Y. M. C. A. Building, 
Mrs. Rosenberg, always deeply sympathetic with his 
public benefactions, presented the Association with 
an excellent portrait of Mr. Rosenberg, which, sus- 
pended in the front office, bears the inscription "Our 
Benefactor," given it by Dr. Palmer, the Secretary 
of the Association, a title that has now been univer- 
sally adopted. The first of May has been selected by 
the School Board of the city as "Rosenberg Day" 
and made a school holiday; it has also been adopted 
by the Directors of the Rosenberg Library by the 
same title and made a library holiday. It is annually 
observed by appropriate addresses in the library 
lecture hall. These occasions are always largely at- 
tended and made enjoyable and instructive. In like 
manner, previous to the establishment of this custom 
by the Library Association, appropriate exercises 
were held in the assembly hall of the Y. M. C. A. 
on the anniversary of his birth. 

By Mr. Rosenberg's wdll Major A. J. Walker and 
Mr. W. J. Frederich were appointed independent 
executors, without bond, and some time later, by Mr. 
Frederich's death, the executorship of the estate was 
devolved exclusively upon Major Walker. These 
duties he continued faithfully to discharge, complet- 
ing all the works and buildings before turning them 
over, and adding considerably to the value of the 




THE VILLAGE CHURCH OF BILTEN 

Built in 1816. Here Henry Rosenberg was christened in 1824 and con- 
firmed in 1840. The church was renovated and improved in 1890 
and 1891 through the generosity of Henry Rosenberg 



Plate No. 5 




The V illaye of Bilten 



LETTER FROM HENRY ROSENBERG'S 
NATIVE VILLAGE 

THE village of Bilten, the birthplace of Consul 
Henry Rosenberg, lies on the western boundary 
of Canton Glarus, Switzerland, and has about 600 
inhabitants. The village lies at the foot of the Hirtzli 
in a beautiful location, and with its fine farms planted 
with fruit trees it presents an appearance quite 
idyllic. Bilten has a railway station on the Zurich- 
Chur line. The inhabitants of Bilten nearly all carry 
on agriculture, but a very few are tradespeople or 
mechanics. The people are in comfortable circum- 
stances and lead a rather quiet, even existence which 
is not strongly influenced by the great events of the 
outer world. The commune itself possesses large 
tracts of land which, in part, are divided among the 

[IS] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

citizens; two large mountain pastures (Alpen) are 
leased. The principal interest is dairying. The vil- 
lage has as public buildings the church and the 
school-house, and it has its own electric light plant. 

With regard to the church, I refer you to the jubi- 
lee celebration pamphlet.^ The facts are that Mr. 
Rosenberg in the year 1891 caused to be carried 
through the renovation of the little old, dilapidated 
church, and out of it made a beautiful, neat little 
country church which still stands to-day as a fine tes- 
timony of his beneficence. He assumed the entire 
cost, which amounted to about 25,000 francs. I 
have no photographs at my disposal except that used 
as a frontispiece of the festival pamphlet. [See 
Plate 5.] 

1 "In the year 1891, a time within your own memory, the reno- 
vation of the interior and exterior was accomplished, the cost of 
which, in magnanimous manner, the benefactor of the commune. 
Consul Rosenberg, assumed. May this friend and patron of the 
church be especially thought of with gratitude to-day! The reno- 
vation had become very necessary, in that the church was no longer 
in the best state of repair. This was not to be ascribed to simple 
neglect, for such work is costly and the means for it were never at 
hand. The people were glad to cover the ordinary running ex- 
penses of the church. Even for that it needed considerable effort. 
So it became necessary before 1891 to raise the maximum legal tax, 
and, notwithstanding that, to this tax was added the interest on 
church property originating in an earlier time. But even then the 
amount was not large enough, and usually there was still a deficit 
that had to be assumed by the Tagwen (Burghers' Council). It 
may be said that this church tax, in its entirety, was raised without 
opposition, a part of it from the church membership in Schanis, 
from which the general sentiment toward the church may be in- 
ferred. The sacrifice that the church needed was made. Since the 
bequest of Consul Rosenberg it is quite different, in that there is 

1^1 



LETTER FROM NATIVE VILLAGE 

We have here no biography of the late Mr. Rosen- 
berg. It is known only that as a nineteen-year-old 
youth, disappointed in not obtaining a desired public 
clerkship, he emigrated to America and there ac- 
quired his large fortune. He had two sisters in 
Bilten who were not so fortunate as to live to see him 
upon his return [1890] after fifty years' absence. 
During their lifetime he frequently assisted them, 
and he remembered their children in his will. 

In the will of Mr. Rosenberg the following ap- 
pears: 

A. To the Waisenamt (orphanage) of Bilten, 255,- 

000 francs. 

B. To the Gemeinde (commune) of Bilten, 153,000 

francs. 

now no church tax. Likewise in this regard we have to-day to be 
thankful to this man. 

"In connection with the renovation in the year 1 891, a desire 
was expressed to increase the height of the church tower and to 
place thereon a steeple. In the church council the matter was dis- 
cussed, and they believed the opportunity was favorable, in that the 
scaiEEolding was still standing. But the estimated cost of about 
4000 francs, which sum the members of the church would have to 
bear, deterred them somewhat; and, on the other hand, they did 
not wish to change the renovation plan approved by Consul Rosen- 
berg, though at their own expense, because such action might pro- 
duce a wrong impression upon him. So the matter regarding the 
tower, which we still have to-day, was dropped, and this work, in 
which larger bells would also have been included, is reserved for a 
later generation. The present bells date back to the year 1832 and 
were cast by Meister Ruetschi in Aarau. Among these bells there 
still hangs, now unused, an old small bell supposed to have come 
from the chapel of St. Catherine." — History of the Church and 
Parish of Bilten for the Three Hundredth Anniversary, September 
22, igoj, by H. HiRZEL, Pastor. 

1:1,0 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

Both foundations were established by Mr. Rosenberg 
for educational and charitable purposes, and the in- 
terest only is used. By the terms of the will the 
orphanage board manages the former fund, and the 
latter fund is controlled by the commune council. 
The desire commonly prevails to administer these 
foundations in the intent and spirit of the testator, 
and above all to preserve the funds themselves ever 
unimpaired for posterity. 

The commune has sent to Galveston, to the wife of 
the late Mr. Rosenberg, a fine official acknowledg- 
ment, a copy of which we have retained. A large 
portrait of Consul Rosenberg adorns each of our 
school-rooms and also the parsonage, and our leading 
citizens always delight to make honorable mention 
of the great citizen and benefactor from time to time 
on appropriate public occasions. 

These are the facts, so far as my knowledge goes. 

It will give me pleasure, as president of the com- 
mune, if my short statement can contribute somewhat 
to the highly deserved honor of our great fellow 
citizen and benefactor. 

With respect, 

Heinrich Aebli, 

President of the Commune. 
May, 1912. 



1:16:1 




EATON CHAPEL AND TRINITY 

EPISCOPAL CHURCH 

Mr. Rosenberg contributed $10,000 in 1882 toward 

building the chapel 



Plate No. 6 



EATON CHAPEL 

EATON CHAPEL was erected as a memorial to 
Rev. Benjamin Eaton, Rector of Trinity Epis- 
copal Church, who died in 1871. About one half the 
cost was contributed by Henry Rosenberg, He also 
gave the handsome stained glass window, "The Good 
Shepherd," which is in the chapel. The window is 
the work of J. & R. Lamb of New York City. The 
chapel and ground cost about $18,000. The building 
was dedicated on Sunday, March 19, 1882. Mr. 
Rosenberg's total contribution was about $10,000. 

While Rev. Benjamin Eaton was rector he con- 
ceived the idea of a parish school and lots were pur- 
chased. After his death his congregation decided to 
make the building a memorial to Dr. Eaton, and the 
idea of its purpose was enlarged so as to provide in 
the building for the Sunday school, lecture room, 
and headquarters for all organizations of the church 
and its charities. Mr. Rosenberg, at that time a ves- 
tryman in the church, heartily espoused the cause and 
encouraged the ladies in their work of raising the 
money needed. When it seemed impossible to raise 
more and the work was about to come to a standstill, 
Mr. Rosenberg came forward and offered the money 
necessary to complete the project. So there stands at 

C'7] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

the corner of 22d Street and Avenue H this chapel, 
which was, as stated in the consecration service, 
"erected to the glory of God and the memory of Rev. 
Benjamin Eaton." 



CiS] 




o 
o 

X 

o 

w 
w 
c< 

a 
Pi 

w 
z 

W 

o 

w 

w 
X 



.mi 



o 
Z 

H 
H 
< 



THE HENRY ROSENBERG 
FREE SCHOOL 

MR. ROSENBERG'S LETTER OFFERING TO DONATE 
A BUILDING 

Galveston, April 5, 1888. 

To the President and Board of School Trustees : 

GENTLEMEN: 
Having spent in this city the best years of a 
long and active business life, extending throughout a 
period of more than forty-four years, during which 
I have witnessed its steady growth from a village to 
a populous, prosperous, and progressive commercial 
city, I have long felt a sincere desire to accomplish 
some undertaking which may in some instance con- 
tribute to the welfare and happiness of a community 
endeared to me by association and friendship which 
I hold in grateful and kindly remembrance. How 
best to promote this object has been a subject to which 
I have given earnest thought, and believing now that 
in extending and enlarging the opportunities of edu- 
cating the children of this city the greatest good and 
best results will be accomplished, I am prompted to 
suggest that in the event the Board of School Trus- 
tees will designate the site recently acquired, com- 

C193 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

prising the east half of block 311 [west side of nth 
Street, between Avenues G and H], for the purpose 
indicated, I propose at once to appropriate and con- 
tribute the sum of $40,000 for the erection thereon of 
a complete and substantial structure for the purpose 
of a public free school for the education of the white 
children of the city of Galveston. This building I 
propose shall be erected under the superintendence 
of a competent architect to be selected by me, and 
whose plans shall be fully approved by the Board of 
School Trustees. Desiring that the construction of 
the proposed building may be begun and the work 
prosecuted to early completion with as little delay as 
necessary, and that I may have the satisfaction, dur- 
ing the years which may yet remain to me, of wit- 
nessing the successful and good results which I 
sincerely trust will attend the undertaking, I respect- 
fully ask at the hands of your honorable body such 
early consideration of the proposal here submitted 
and such action as will give the same practical effect. 
I am, very sincerely. 

Your friend and obedient servant, 

H. Rosenberg. 

Mr. Rosenberg's ofTer was accepted and a brick 
stuccoed building, 206 x 90 feet, was constructed 
that cost before completion about $75,000. The cor- 
ner-stone was laid with Masonic ceremony on June 
30, 1888. Mr. Rosenberg was represented in the pro- 

1:20] 



HENRY ROSENBERG FREE SCHOOL 

gram by Major M. F. Mott, and Mr. R. V. Davidson 
responded on behalf of the school trustees. This gift, 
completed before the death of Mr. Rosenberg, gave 
him great satisfaction. He personally gave close 
attention to many matters having to do with the con- 
struction of the building, and the result was un- 
usually thorough work. The building was dedicated 
with fitting ceremonies on February 15, 1889, in the 
presence of a great throng of people gathered in the 
assembly hall of the building itself. On behalf of the 
donor, Mr. Thomas J. Ballinger presented the build- 
ing to the School Board. The response and accep- 
tance was by Mr. M. E. Kleberg, President of the 
Board of School Trustees. Mr. Leo N. Levi was the 
orator of the occasion. 



CzO 




HExNRY ROSENBERG 

Age 21 



Plate No. 8 




HENRY ROSENBERG 

Age about 50 



Plate No. 9 




c 

Z 

w 

CO 

c 



^ b£ 



Z ^ ■ 



UJ -a = 



^ 



o 



THE SORROW OF THE CITY 

HENRY ROSENBERG died at his home in 
Galveston at 2 A.M. on Friday, the twelfth of 
May, 1893. ^^s death called forth many beautiful 
tributes and evidences of the love and great respect 
in vs^hich he vv^as held not only in his adopted city but 
in the State at large. The State press commented 
editorially upon Galveston's great loss in the death of 
this highly respected citizen. Memorial services and 
meetings and general mourning extended over a 
period of about three w^eeks. On the day of Mr. 
Rosenberg's death the School Board met at noon to 
take appropriate action. The public schools were 
closed for the day. The Consular Corps of Galves- 
ton, of which Mr. Rosenberg was a member as Con- 
sul for Switzerland, at the request of the Dean placed 
their flags at half mast until after the funeral, and 
attended the funeral in a body. Flags were half- 
masted also over business houses and yachts in the 
harbor. Many offices and business houses, as a mark 
of respect, closed their doors early. Messages of con- 
dolence and sympathy were received from friends 
far and near. Beautiful floral offerings were sent. 
Among them was a Swiss flag — a red ground with a 
white cross in the centre — attached to which was a 

1:233 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

ribbon with the words: "La Colonic Suisse de Gal- 
veston a Regrette son Consul." The conductors and 
motormen of the Market Street line sent a beautiful 
floral offering with the inscription: "From the con- 
ductors and motormen of the Market Street line. He 
who rules our destinies hath taken to Himself our 
friend." Resolutions were adopted by the vestry and 
congregation of Grace Church, by the teachers of 
the Rosenberg School, the City Council, the Island 
City Orphans' Home, and other organizations. 

A formal request signed by many citizens was pre- 
sented to the family, that the body be permitted to 
lie in state at the Rosenberg School building, and that 
the funeral services be conducted there. The request 
was granted and the body lay in state from 12 o'clock 
noon until 5 P.M. on Sunday, the fourteenth of May, 
1893. About five thousand people viewed the re- 
mains. The funeral services, conducted in part at 
the Rosenberg School at 3.30 P.M., were concluded at 
Grace Episcopal Church. The pall-bearers were: 

M. F. Mott J. Reymershoffer 

J. H. Hutchings J. P. Bowen 

C. F. Prehn J. M. Brown 

V, E. Austin William Scrimgeour 

Ben Barnes Frank Vollert 

J. L. Long B. Adoue 

J. E. Toothaker U. Muller 

E. D. Garratt George D. Briggs 

John Focke Charles Fowler 

L Lovenberg Sanford Southwick 

1:24] 



SORROW OF THE CITY 

At the Rosenberg School the services were opened 
with prayer by Rev. W. N. Scott. There were brief 
addresses by Mr. R. B. Hawley, President of the 
Board of School Trustees; Mr. Oscar H. Cooper, 
Superintendent of Public Schools; and Colonel Rob- 
ert G. Street. Rev. Dr. J. R. Carter, of Grace Epis- 
copal Church, assisted by Rev. W. N. Scott of the 
Presbyterian Church, conducted the services at Grace 
Church. 

The remains were temporarily placed in the vault 
of Dr. J. F. Y. Paine in the Cahill Cemetery, Gal- 
veston, and were transferred about two weeks later 
to Loudon Park Cemetery, Baltimore, where they 
were interred in accordance with the wishes of the 
deceased. 

On Saturday, May 20, the munificent public be- 
quests by the will of Mr. Rosenberg were made 
known to the people through the press. On Wednes- 
day, May 24, the City Council met in special session 
to hear the report of the committee previously ap- 
pointed to draft resolutions of respect to the memory 
of Henry Rosenberg. In accordance with a resolu- 
tion of this special Memorial Committee of the City 
Council, "to the end that the people of Galveston be 
given an opportunity to voice the deep sense of grati- 
tude and afifection which they entertain for their de- 
ceased friend and benefactor, Henry Rosenberg," the 
Mayor issued the following proclamation: 



1:253 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

To the People of Galveston: 

You are hereby called to assemble on Ball High School 
Square, Tuesday evening, May 30, to do honor to the 
memory of our late fellow citizen, Henry Rosenberg. 

A joint committee of aldermen and citizens have for- 
mulated the following program for observance, to begin 
promptly at eight o'clock: 

Battle Prayer . . . Galveston Quartette Society 

Invocation Rev. J. R. Carter 

Introductory Speech T. J. Ballinger 

Reading of Resolutions . Offered by City Council 

Oration Leo N. Levi 

"My Country, 'tis of Thee" 

Galveston Quartette Society 

One acclaim of fervent gratitude should mark the tes- 
timony of this city to the virtues and benefactions of this 
noble man, whose life and name are interwoven by golden 
threads with all that is most useful and exalted in its his- 

^* Respectfully, 

R. L. Fulton, Mayor. 

The Memorial Committee that was appointed by the 
Mayor, in accordance with the resolution of the City 
Council, to arrange for the public meeting, was com- 
posed of Thomas J. Gallagher, Charles Fowler, J. 
Reymershofifer, of the City Council, and three citi- 
zens, namely, George Sealy, J. P. Alvey, and R. B. 
Hawley. On the occasion of the public mass meet- 
ing in Ball High School Square, there were five or 
six thousand people, representing all classes and con- 

1:26] 



SORROW OF THE CITY 

ditions, assembled to pay respect to the memory of 
their friend and benefactor. 

The final interment occurred on the thirty-first of 
May, in Loudon Park Cemetery, Baltimore, Mary- 
land. During the day in Galveston a circular which 
read as follows was signed by a hundred of the 
leading wholesale and retail merchants and others: 

Galveston, May 31.— Out of respect to the funeral 
obsequies of Galveston's greatest philanthropist and 
noblest benefactor, which to-day take place in Baltimore, 
the undersigned citizens of the well-loved adopted home 
of Henry Rosenberg will close their respective places of 
business at four o'clock. 

Many besides those who signed closed their places 
of business. There was an unusual quiet over the 
city, and men spoke of Galveston's great benefactor. 



I27I 



'^r> 



1 ^mSl"iS^»itt4tts^ ^ 



GITY COIJXCII-?5*CITY OF GALVESTON () 





■ / /-f y/r/y/ //jv ^/rj /■/////////n/fr/, // ///////■ /j yiy j- 
j///r/v//. f/ r//// /J /-//f/Z/ff/ /r//// ///f//f/f//ff/ n//f/r/ ff/y//y///////Y /jy//// f/ Jfy/r/r. ^'/^//■/■rw//fir////y//r'^ 
</r////j/i'/Of //>/f///f/f ^///// r///////// , r/ ////r////f r//r ir^/// ////// ////fiy/f///. /'//f/^f r/////-// f/^^f/ /r ////■ ///-//^/j 
f/ //f//j/f/"// r/r/'/// f/f^f/f //' <^, /r///- //// ///f //ff/ r/ A/J Jf/Z/f/y/r //////■yr/i'/ /■/ ///^ /rf/r// /y • 
r/ //// //f//f /y///'///fy/, A//y f///J//yffy ////// J///////////J ///////////// //ff/f //f/yj/ r/r/^,- /r//// '. :". •• 

r/ ///ff/j. /////■/ //// r//f/// f/j//rrfjj, ir/Zfi' /^ /fj //■/////■ f /// ////J /■//y r/ ///^ff /^ro/ /''/^'/ ''/'^^^''-y, ■- 
/f/////////M /// ///f //f ///////// ''4'f//y y/ C^yy/'^ J '!'/"■ /rw/ ^^ff^yj ///•///< /ff ^fy ^/'/'//'/y//rr////-y//f, 
/r //Cy yyyyyy y//yyj yyyy/y/yyy /yy/yyyyyy y^, yiy//yyy/y y/y/y/ yyy////yyyyy /^y /Ay /yyy//yy y/yyr/yyyyy/ 
/yfyy/ty/y, yyyyy/ //y ///y /•/// yyyyy/y// yy'Ay yy /yy /yy/y/yy A i'yyy y/y/^yy Ay yyyj yyj/yyy/yy/ /yy . ' 
/yyy ^/yyfi , /y// /f/f/A/z/y^ ///yyyy//// yyy y/y/y/yyyy/yyy/ yyyyy//yyJ yyy)yyyyy/vyyy//yy/y/y/// /y y/ryy/ /yyyy/j yyyy^ 

^)\^li'^^-yy// y/ ///y y/yy/yi/yj y/ /y/j //yy/y/. y//yyy/y yyyyy yyyy y/y'yy yyj Ayy yAyy/ A /Ar t 
yyf//j y/ y//yy/y///, y/y/y/ /ryy/r/i//// y/ y////yy/yyy////yi /yy /yyy///r /yy/y/r/yyyyy , Ay Ay^-y yyyy/yyyyy/ wr ry/// • 
yryi// A/y yy/yyyy/J y/ -Cyy/yyj/yyy iry//y yyyyAj/yyyy/ yyyy/yyyyy./ r//yyy A'yyyy^yy-^J y/yyy/ Ayy. yAAyy/yyyyy/yyyyy 
////yyj y/yyy/y yy AyyAy /y y/yyyy/yyyyj /yy yyyyyy yy/yyy/y/yyyyyyy/yy/yJ, yAyyyyyyyy/ Ayy y/yyyA/yyy^ y/yA/AAr/y 
y/y/yyy/Ayyy yyyyy/ yyyyyy/yyyy/"y/y/y/yyy y/yyyyyyyyj /yyyyy yyAj/y/j y/ yyyyyy' /Ayy/yyy/y yyyyyy /y/yy/y/Zyy, yAyyy/yyyAy/ 

^U'SOlprt: // //y yy/y/ yyyy/yyy/ y/ //yy /y//// ^yy/yyyA/y. //yyy/ /yy /Ay jyyyA/yy /yy/yy/y/- 
y//y/ A' 'yyyy/ ■ /Cyjyyy/yyy/ yy /yyy//yyyj /yyyy yyyyyy/^ yyy //yy rr/yyyyyyyyyy/y/ //yyy/ yyyyy yyyyyy A /^/Z^/-/f - 
//yy yy/>///yyj /yi///'y yyyy///j/ /yyyy/yyy/y , //yy/yyyy /yyyyr /yy/ /Ay/y A'yyyy/^y//yyyyyy/. Ayy /yAA yAyAy/yyyy 
/yyyyy /yj/ //y/r yyyy y/ /yy yy/y/ /yyy/yyyy , jryyy/// /yyyyyyyy/j yy y/yyyyyryy y/yyy//yyyi//y. //y //yyAy//yyyy Ay/ r/yy 
y//yi yyy//yj////y/yyy///yy//yy/y // / /yyr yy y/Ayyyyy A //y yyy/, /y/yyy yyyy/ /Ayy/ Ayy yyyyyryyy yyyy 
■y/yyy y/ ■ y 'yyy AA yyyy y/yyy y/A //yyyyy/j /yy //y /yy/, //yyy/ /Ay y/y/y/yy/ y/y/A/ /j ryryyyyy/ yyr/Ay y 
/yyyyyyy/y AA yyyyy/, yyy // yj /y /A yyyy/ /y/ /Ay // y'y/y yJ yyyyy/ /Ayyyy/'y y/ Ayy yyyyy//y'/yyyAy yAyy//yyA ' 
//y yyy/yyyyy y/A/j y/yyyy/ yryyA yyyyy/yyyy Ayy/AyAy/ A /y//yir A/yy yyyyy/ Ayyy/Ayy Ayy/yy Ay/ /Ayr ■' 
/yy//y yiyyyyy/y/y y/ .Ayy yyyy/ -Ai-yy/yAyyy^. '■ - ' 

: i'{rSOlPl'd= //yy/ //yy yi/yyyyy/ryy y//yu/yyyyyy/ /y^yr/ y/AAyy ryyyyyy// yy/yyA -- ■_ r, .■ 
y///y y/'A' y'^f"' y/ //y yyy A A ryy/y/yyyyyy//y/. /y/y/yyry/ yy/y/y AAy y/yy/y/y/yy y)A /A/r r/Ay/ ■ ■■ 
yyyyyyyy/ yyj yy yyyy yyyy y /yy/ y/ //yy Ayryyry yy/yyA Ayyr yy/Ay y/y/yAy yAyy yyyyy/ yyyyy yy^yyyyAy/, /Ay/ 
y yy/y// y/ /Ayy yyy Ayy/yy yyy A yyyy/ /y /Ay /yyyyy// y/ /Ay yAryyyyyy/. yyyyy/ /Ayy/ /Ary/ /y /yy'- 
/yy/y y y/yyy /Ay '■yyyAyyjA/y ^1 yyyy yyyyyA f' yyy/yyyy/ -yy/A/yyyy, yyyyy/ /Ayy/ yy/y yyJ y/ /Ayy/ y'y- 
jy/y/yyy A /yyyyy/yyAyyyyy//y/yyy/y/yyy AyyAy/y/Ayyy,yyy//Ayyy/yAry, //yy -A^yyyyyAyy^ -ArAyyyA 
yy/zA //yy ■ //yy/A '.J, y/A ./y/yyy Ay /y y//yyy//yyy ■ ■ ; 

JlrSOlfpii: ////// yy y/yy/yj y//y/yyyy/ y/ yy/yyyyy A yyyA/yy/Ay //yy yyyyy/yy y/ Ay ry/y/, /r //yy 
yyy/ //yyy/ //y /yyy/y/y y/ -Cyy/yyyAyy /y y/yyyy yyy r/y/yy//yyyyy/y/ /r yyyA /Ay yAyy/y yyyyyy y/^yyy/y- 
//yy/y yyy/y/yy//yy//yy y///yyA //y// y/y/yAy/yy/yy //yyy y/''yyjy//yyy/y^yy/ '^''yy/^Ayi; ■y,yyyy^.:4yyyyy/ry^. 

'/'/±// ///'/ /'/"/if/ 



»- fy y////.J.-y6''//rj^/'/, '''/■y ^y'.y' 

■>/r //yy/, //,/ ///y//. // „///jj /„/////,^ /■/ ////,///. 

■y' ///,/„//, //,/y yj '/)}./ y/// /////y >/j///////. 



•^.//.•yWA/ry/, y//,./^. 



^yAy/'J.y. .y^/y^^Ay^y' . 
^' /yyy. •y'yyy/ry'. 

•^. •//. ■y/r/yy/y//. 






//y/y/y// //// -/y////// // ///y //////./,///// .////^Z. 
,/ //////, ///,// i,///i^,///,/ //////r ///////,/// ///,///////. 

^yy Jyyy/y^. 

/. •y^//yyyry-//y//y. 



y- 



'r 



Plate No. i i 



IK> 




THE ROSENBERG MONUMENT 

Loudon Park Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland 



Plate No. 12 



The Rosenberg Monument in Loudon Park 
Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland 

[inscription] 

IN MEMORIAM 
HENRY ROSENBERG 

BORN IN 

BILTEN, CANTON GLARUS 

SWITZERLAND 

JUNE 22, 1824 

DIED IN 

GALVESTON, TEXAS 

MAY 12, 1893 

BELOVED HUSBAND OF 
MARY RAGAN MACGILL 



"he did justly, loved mercy, and 

WALKED HUMBLY WITH HIS GOD." 



"well DONE, GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT; 
ENTER THOU INTO THE JOY OF THY LORD.'' 



ROSENBERG 

[29] 



TRIBUTE AT THE FUNERAL SERVICES 
AT ROSENBERG SCHOOL 

BY HON. ROBERT G. STREET 

THERE is a solemnity that becomes the presence 
of death far removed from any dread or fear 
of it. Sublime mystery! That the Creator, that He 
alone who can create, that He alone who has created, 
should seemingly annul, destroy the crowning work 
of His own hands! And wherefore? For it was 
good. Unspeakable mystery! "In that sleep of 
death, what dreams may come . . . must give us 
pause!" How well the great poet who has indicated 
the eloquence of silence in the presence of death un- 
derstood the human heart! "Each chord its various 
tone, each note its various bias." Thus teaching us 
what all feel in this presence to-day, that its true les- 
son is to be learned only through the self-communion 
of those who, reverent in spirit, approach it with awe 
unmingled with fear. 

My Fellow Citizens, the School Board indicated 
to me only an hour or two since the wish that I should 
give voice to the sentiments of this community on the 
death of Henry Rosenberg; should tell why this gen- 
eral grief, why these unaccustomed honors. I have 

1:31] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

but a single thought to express, and so sensible am I 
of my own unfitness, I regret that, for want of oppor- 
tunity to refer to it, I cannot give you the eloquent 
language of another expressing that thought. It is a 
thought at once so simple, so naturally springing 
from the occasion, that the humblest — aye, the very 
children — may apprehend it; so beneficent that it 
may mitigate the grief of the afflicted; so far-reach- 
ing in its consequences that the mightiest intellect 
may not fully grasp it. When the author of the life 
of Thomas Jefferson sent a presentation copy of the 
work to Lord Macaulay, the latter — himself an ar- 
dent Whig and who might have been expected to 
sympathize with Mr. Jefferson's political creed — 
replied, saying he thought Mr. Jefferson's teachings 
in behalf of universal suffrage profound error, and 
foretold immeasurable disaster to this country to flow 
from its exercise, when, he said, the middle classes, 
the sinews of strength in every land, would be 
ground to dust between the very rich and the very 
poor, as between upper and nether mill-stones. Gen- 
eral Garfield, upon the floor of the House of Rep- 
resentatives, referring to this incident, eloquently 
refuted Lord Macaulay's reasoning. He said that 
Lord Macaulay had failed to consider that we had 
no classes in America, that wealth and honors in this 
country were open to all, and that they were con- 
stantly achieved by the poorest and humblest. 

But what shall we say of the object-lesson in these 
great principles that leaven the whole American 

[132] 



FUNERAL SERVICES 

body politic, furnished us in the life of Henry Rosen- 
berg, who, by his own industry, sagacity, prudence, 
frugality, and self-denial, achieving a large fortune, 
has shown his appreciation of the value of education 
as a great and potent factor in American civilization 
and citizenship by pouring out his hard-earned 
wealth in a generous stream to nourish its growth? 
What influence will such a deed and such a life not 
have in this community, with which he was so closely 
identified? Its direct influence is apparent. But I 
refer to its encouragement to others who are blessed 
with wealth in using it liberally to promote the com- 
mon good. I said we had no classes. But the rich 
are often intolerant, and the poor sometimes are op- 
pressed, and still oftener consider themselves so. His 
life will teach both to be more just and more gener- 
ous toward each other. What nobler work in this life 
can any man do than by the generous acknowledg- 
ment of the obligations of wealth to promote the hap- 
piness and welfare of the community in which he 
lives and at the same time to take as hostages for the 
future preservation of law, order, and rights of prop- 
erty the grateful hearts of his fellow citizens? As 
long as the fragrance of the memory of Henry Rosen- 
berg shall linger in this community it must be impos- 
sible for lawless agitation and communism to obtain 
a foothold here. He has awakened within us those 
feelings that make all the world akin. Let us find 
consolation in his death in the thought how his last 
moments must have been brightened with the con- 

C33II 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

sciousness that he had contributed to the elevation of 
his fellows, to the happiness and tranquillity of the 
community, that he had knit us all together in the 
bonds of love, of sympathy and mutual forbearance. 



C343 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

BY CLARENCE OUSLEY 

THE freightage of the surf is many kind. 
Both wreck and treasure ride the crested wave, 
And ever as it frets its force away 
Against unyielding shores it builds the strand 
For men to walk upon and trade and thrive. 
There bleaching lie the shells of myriad life 
That throbbed but briefly in a stifling sea 
And perished. And some, untimely cast ashore, 
Lie festering upon the sun-kissed sands, 
Abhorred and pestilent, while some are ripe 
To death and but repose in welcome rest. 
And some are puny pigmies sprawling prone 
And rudely crushed into forgetfulness 
By hurrying heels of eager, searching crowds; 
And some are larger growth and stand erect — 
Majestic statues of a giant kind. 
Impacted in the sands of time, behold, 
Nor wind nor tide nor jostling jealousy 
Can shake their adamantine base — unmoved 
Of all the mutable that throng the earth. 
And these are they who in their speeding day, 
While youth and strength lent opportunity. 
With frugal husbandry wrought hard and fast 
To garner yellow wealth in honest bins. 

[353 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

And when the sun shone golden in the west 

And shadows deepened to the coming night, 

They looked upon their stores and smiled to think 

That Power now was minister to Wish, 

And straightway loosed the locks and smote the bars 

That young and old and mind and soul and beast 

Might share the blessings of a fruitful life. 

And they live on. Along the pebbled way 

That stretches from the utmost to the end 

They mark the certain progress of mankind 

And guide us up to godlier destinies. 



1:363 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

BY JOHN P. SJOLANDER 

HEAVEN was not afar to him. Behold! 
He walks the city's streets with us to-day; 
And where he goes the pave is more than gold, 

The way a straighter, brighter, better way. 
With beauties manifold. 

And where the door of home is opened wide, 
At close of day, we find him waiting there. 

Ready to share our humble ingleside. 
Making it richer for the treasures rare 

His bounteous hands provide. 

And where the children are, there you will find 
Him always present, and with outstretched hand 

Guiding the generations, heart and mind. 
That they may be a blessing to the land. 

And to all humankind. 

His was the gift, all other gifts above, 
Which God bestows on but a chosen few — 

The gift to love with an undying love. . . . 
Only that soul that God and man finds true 

Can keeper be thereof. 

For man may build a city with much din, 
And die forgotten 'mid its stone and wood; 

But immortality that soul shall win 
Whose one thought is to make its people good, 

And good to dwell therein. 

1371 




ROSENBERG DAY, 1913 
Children from Rosenberg School 



Plate No. 13 



FOUNDER'S DAY 

THE dedication and opening of the Rosenberg 
Library to the public on June 22, 1904, the 
birthday of Henry Rosenberg, established the li- 
brary custom, observed for several years, of celebrat- 
ing that day as Founder's Day. Because, however, 
of the evident desirability of commemorating annu- 
ally, in the public schools, the benefactions of Henry 
Rosenberg, it was thought wise to change the date 
from the twenty-second of June, which follows the 
close of school, to the first of May, when all of the 
schools would still be in session. The change was 
accordingly made, beginning with the year 1909. 
The Young Men's Christian Association had for 
some years previous to 1904 celebrated Mr. Rosen- 
berg's birthday. 

Every year, on the evening of the first of May, the 
Board of Directors invites the people of Galveston 
to gather at the library lecture hall to celebrate with 
them Rosenberg Day. The program for Founder's 
Day exercises consists of music and an address by a 
prominent Galveston citizen or some specially in- 
vited guest from elsewhere. On this occasion the 
Library is decorated with plants and flowers and the 
flags of the United States, of Texas, and of Switzer- 
land. The portrait of Henry Rosenberg is given a 
place of prominence. The day is a holiday in the 

[39;] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 



public schools, with appropriate exercises at the 
school buildings in the morning. The children of the 
Rosenberg School bring flowers to decorate the 
Rosenberg statue and sing songs there. The children 
of other schools also bring flowers to the Library on 
this day. 

The speakers at the dedication of the Rosenberg 
Library and succeeding Founder's Day celebrations 
have been : 



June 22, 1904 



June 22, 1905 
June 22, 1906 
June 22, 1907 
May I, 1909 
May 2, 1910 



May 
May 

May 

May 

May 

May 
May 



191 1 
1912 

1914 

1915 

1916 
1917 



May I, 191 8 



. Colonel M. F. Mott, Vice-President. 
Hon. M. E. Kleberg, Galveston. 
Hon. Arthur LeFevre, State Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction. 

. Mr. Charles P. Macgill, Galveston. 

. Rabbi Henry Cohen, Galveston. 

. Mr. John T. Wheeler, Galveston. 

. Mr. Eugene A. Hawkins, Galveston. 

. Mr. F. Charles Hume, Jr., Hous- 
ton, Texas. 

. Hon. Yancey Lewis, Dallas, Texas. 

. President Sidney E. Mezes, Univer- 
sity of Texas. 

. Dr. J. J. Terrill, Galveston. 

. Hon. Clarence Ousley, Fort 
Worth, Texas. 

. Hon. Morris Sheppard, Texarkana, 
Texas. 

. Flon. W. P. Hobby, Beaumont, Texas. 

. Mr. George Waverley Briggs, 
Galveston. 

. President Robert E. Vinson, LL.D., 
University of Texas. 



ROSENBERG DAY ADDRESS, MAY i, 1911 

BY HON. YANCEY LEWIS 

IT is said of the great naturalist, Cuvier, that such 
was his learning and knowledge of the relations 
in the anatomy of animal life that you could give to 
him a small part, a joint for instance, from the frame 
of some prehistoric animal and he could reconstruct 
from that the entire creature as it had existed. In a 
sense it is not a happy illustration of the thought that 
I would present; in another sense it is an accurate 
one. It would not require learning or skill on the 
part of one who had informed himself of the pro- 
visions of the will of Mr. Henry Rosenberg, from 
that instrument to outline the lineaments of his char- 
acter and to reconstruct the individual as he in truth 
existed ; and it has occurred to me that no more profit- 
able endeavor could be made on the part of the 
speaker upon this occasion than to attempt this work. 
In the first place, I should say then, judging from 
that great document, that Mr. Rosenberg was a man 
in whom there was developed most clearly and 
strongly the conception that wealth is not given in 
absolute and unqualified ownership, but that its pos- 
sessors hold it in trust for high purposes and for 
worthy uses. It is an idea that has developed and 
grown strong and been many times illustrated within 
recent years. And to my thinking it is one of the 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

most pregnant, hopeful, and suggestive characteris- 
tics of our age — a curious age; an age and a country 
in which conflicting and transcendent forces seem to 
have been unloosed; in w^hich, upon the greatest 
theatre that the world has yet seen, man has been 
given the opportunity to play with these forces and 
to work out his development upon a scale that should 
be grander than has existed heretofore — or, if evil 
forces should prevail, worse than has been known in 
history. It is an age in which men have used the 
means and methods of acquisition with more skill 
and effect than has ever been known at any time in 
the past. They have used them in a more furious 
competition, a more merciless and inhuman competi- 
tion in some regards, than has been illustrated here- 
tofore; and the madness of the pursuit of mere 
material possessions has gone to an unparalleled ex- 
treme. How curious is it to observe, alongside of 
these manifestations, a sense of obligation in the use 
of wealth, a princely generosity, a humanity of pro- 
vision for those w^ho suffer, far surpassing in its ex- 
tent, its variety, and its development, anything that 
has been seen at any time in past ages! If the effort 
for acquisition has been greater, so have the benefac- 
tions of men been nobler and greater in our time than 
at other periods. 

It is not the least notable among the many distinc- 
tions that we must ascribe to him we honor this even- 
ing, that he was almost the first in this State, he was 
at least among the first — for you have had others in 

C42] 



ROSENBERG DAY ADDRESS 

this city who exhibited the same high characteristics 
— who perceived the truth that is permeating the 
minds of men everywhere: that he who is given the 
talent for acquisition receives it, not that he may 
enjoy recklessly or wastefuUy squander or hoard in 
miserly greed, not that he may in the ostentation of 
frivolous living use that which comes to him; but 
that he shall use it for the betterment of his kind and 
for the elevation and the advancement of humanity. 

So I should say, further, that from this instrument 
one would learn that Mr. Rosenberg had in him a 
marvelous and wonderful catholicity and love for all 
good things, and in this he showed one of the ten- 
dencies that steadily becomes more marked as char- 
acteristic of our time, which has a directness that 
seeks essential good and does not concern itself about 
formulas and creeds. It was immaterial to him how 
his desires were to be wrought out in detail, or what 
denomination of those who recognize God's purposes 
as controlling in the world was to guide and direct 
them. Truly may we say of him that it was clear to 
his mind that "through the ages one increasing pur- 
pose runs," and that well did he illustrate that "the 
thoughts of men are widened with the process of the 
suns." 

Further, we learn that in him was that which, 
above all things, the age needs — a sense of relations 
and of the fact that duties and obligations spring 
from relations. Most men realize that in the relation 
of family, of a father to his wife and children, there 

C43II 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

is the obligation of maintenance and support and pro- 
vision. There are some who do not realize that, while 
it may not be so strong, there is a duty as distinctly 
and clearly marked growing out of the relation of 
citizen to country and State. And sometimes it has 
occurred to me that we in this country, who have en- 
joyed an affluence of liberty and opportunity, do not 
apprehend this fact as clearly as those who are born 
in other countries where there is not the same extent 
of right and individual piivilege. How notable is it 
that Mr. Rosenberg, born in a foreign country, should 
have perceived the duty of the citizen to the State and 
to those who have rendered it great service, so clearly 
that he was the first, as I recall, who made adequate 
provision, either among private citizens or through 
public legislation, for a monument to those who laid 
the foundation of our liberties in this commonwealth 
and by their blood dedicated it to us and to empire 
and to freedom. How distinct becomes his percep- 
tion of relations and their duties when we recall that 
he remembered his adopted State and the canton and 
the town in which he was born and made provision 
for them; that he remembered in such various and 
munificent ways the city in which he had spent his 
life and in which his labors had been blessed with 
fortune! How well will it be for us when every citi- 
zen can realize that in the same sense that he owes an 
obligation to his child does he owe another, an im- 
perative obligation, to his country and to his State. I 
do not mean by this to commend merely that sense of 

C443 



ROSENBERG DAY ADDRESS 

civic duty, that patriotism, that makes a man willing 
to spend his life, if need be, in defense of his country. 
Admirable and essential as that is, I hold that the live 
citizen is better than the dead citizen, and that the 
citizen who performs his civic duties with a full sense 
of the obligation that is entailed upon him is many 
times, thousands of times, more useful than the sol- 
dier who goes out to defend his country upon the 
field of battle — though I honor him duly. 

I wish to bring this thought home somewhat more 
fully and clearly than I have done. The citizen 
touches the State most essentially when he exercises 
the right of suffrage. In the exercise of that privi- 
lege he does not exercise a natural right, but a right 
given to him for the benefit of his State, and for its 
protection and the promotion of its general welfare. 
Pie does not exercise it as a personal privilege or a 
private estate existing for his own enjoyment, profit, 
and pleasure alone; he exercises it as a trustee for all 
those who are not given the right to vote, to promote 
good government and the selection of the wisest and 
best men for the administration of its affairs. I do 
not think there is anything more plain than that in 
the exercise of this high privilege there are many 
who conceive that it is a thing to be used for their 
pleasure, a thing in which they may show their 
friendship for another, however unworthy or incom- 
petent, a thing in which they may promote an incom- 
petent or do a charity, so to speak. And yet, of most 
of the evils of which we complain and which threaten 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

the country, I would say that this disposition and this 
exercise of the right of sufifrage, and this failure to 
apprehend the duty to the State from the citizen, and 
incident to the relation between them, is the source 
and the cause. I hope to see the time come when 
there shall be in men's minds as distinct a perception 
of the fact that in choosing those who are to admin- 
ister our affairs they perform a trustee's duty, as there 
is in the minds of the directors of a bank that, in 
selecting those who are to administer the trust funds, 
they are not at liberty to be guided by personal con- 
siderations alone, but always and at all times must 
make their choice with reference to those who will 
best administer those funds and promote the purposes 
of the incorporation they serve. And I hope that the 
time will come when a man will no more feel that he 
is at liberty to exercise the high privilege of suffrage 
through a mere personal consideration, and if he does 
will be subject to the same public criticism, and the 
same odium, that would come to the director of a 
bank who knowingly would put in charge of its funds 
a dishonest or unsafe person because of some mere 
personal preference or individual interest. There 
are sinister developments in our public life that 
threaten us. There are evils that challenge our scru- 
tiny and arouse our alarm. And in the clamor of 
voices, and in the discord of councils, many new 
things are suggested. But I venture to believe that 
we will correct most of our evils when we lodge in 
the general public mind the truth that the citizen, 

1:46] 



ROSENBERG DAY ADDRESS 

because he is a citizen, has, incident to that relation, 
high and imperative duties and obligations, and 
should proceed to perform those duties with an eye 
that looks solely to character and qualification in the 
servants of the State, rather than to personal or sel- 
fish considerations in the exercise of the suffrage by 
the voter. 

I say that this conception of relationship, this sense 
of obligation to the village in which he was born, to 
this city in which he lived, and to the State whose 
laws and whose protection had been about him, was 
clearly defined in the mind of Henry Rosenberg, and 
it is one of the notable things in his character and in 
his life that he illustrated it in his will. 

We know from that instrument, too, that he was a 
lover of little children, and that his spirit was one 
with the spirit of Him who said, "Suffer little chil- 
dren to come unto Me, and forbid them not: for of 
such is the kingdom of Heaven." We know that he 
had regard for the animals who are our dumb servi- 
tors and companions, who give us so much of pure 
delight and unselfish devotion, and who themselves 
suffer, with a sensitiveness that we do not duly appre- 
ciate, so much at our hands. We know that he had 
regard for the aged and broken; that he realized the 
truth that 

He prayeth best who loveth best 
All things both great and small; 

For the dear God who loveth us, 
He made and loveth all. 

[473 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

All these things are clearly marked as outlines and 
lineaments of his character in the provisions that he 
made. 

So, too, we know that he was a lover of books. 
"God be praised for books!" — those lamps that do 
not dispel the physical darkness, but bring light to 
the mind; those friends who do not fail us; those 
wise counselors who are not changed with change of 
time and circumstance; those associates who, if they 
be with us, afiford royal company, though our lives 
be obscure and we be disregarded by those who are, 
for the time being, great. We know that not only did 
he love them, but that it was his desire that others 
should receive the inspiration that comes from them; 
that youths, it may be, without means, might have the 
opportunity of clinging to these precious possessions 
as bees cling to the flowers that are richest in honey. 
And we know how royally he made provision for the 
continuance of the light, the inspiration, and the wis- 
dom that come from the immortal counselors of all 
ages and all time. 

Other things are illustrated in his will, but these 
are enough to show sufficiently the manner of man 
that he was truly. I do not know what his habitual 
manner was. But I know from these things what the 
real man was and what his estimate of real values and 
real duties was. And so knowing him, I am led to 
believe that while he exhibited a princely generosity, 
and while his benefactions, both in their uses and 
their values, are most impressive, the most priceless 

[48] 



ROSENBERG DAY ADDRESS 

thing that he gave to Galveston is to be found in the 
fact that he gave to you, and illustrated to you, in this 
testamentary act, a rare, a wise, a beautiful spirit. 
And my belief is that, though these noble buildings 
and these great benefactions impress us, as the years 
go by and our perceptions become clearer it will yet 
be apprehended that the noblest service that he did 
to this city and to this State was in the illustration of 
the qualities that formed the lineaments and outlines 
of his character and the essential elements of his soul. 
Let me say to you that it is a truth, which it is well 
for us duly and deeply to consider, that the most 
priceless possessions of a city or a State are the char- 
acter and the qualities in the lives of those who have 
lived in it, which remain in it as imperishable lega- 
cies, as indestructible and unceasing influences for all 
time to come. What would be our loss, how much 
that is worthy and noble would be gone, if you take 
out of our life, out of our history and our knowledge, 
the life, the service, the ideals, and the spirit of 
Washington! How the levels of our ideals would 
be lowered, how the richness of our life would be 
made poor and meagre if that should come to pass! 
How much of the value of things that make life 
precious and make our history dear to us would van- 
ish utterly if we take from it not merely the service 
but the spirit and the qualities of Robert E. Lee! 
How large would be the void, how different would 
seem to us the history, the traditions, and the glories 
of England, if, by any chance, there could be with- 

[49] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

drawn from it the lives and ideals and principles of 
Hampden and Milton! And so, in our communities, 
let us realize that the priceless possessions, the best 
and richest things, are not to be measured in mere 
values and standards of the market, but in the lives 
of our citizens. In the nobility of their best and high- 
est, in the ideals of their worthiest and noblest, in the 
influences of their wisest and truest men, you have 
the things that shall prove most valuable and most 
indestructible in the life and continuance of the city. 
I am impressed with another thing in connection 
with the benefactions of Mr. Rosenberg, and that is 
that he was, I do utterly believe, a man who, of all 
men, would be least concerned with monuments and 
memorials that should in some ostentatious fashion 
preserve his name and keep it from being forgotten. 
And yet, while I believe this from the judgment I get 
of him, from what he did and the provisions he made, 
it is curiously true that he has done those things 
which most assuredly will defy the passing years and, 
so far as human provision can accomplish it, secure 
to him an immortality among men. Who can meas- 
ure how many shall be quickened by the inspiration 
of the books in this Library, and shall seek to walk 
in better ways and be guided by a nobler wisdom and 
truer humanity? Who will be able to say, during all 
the years, how many noble youths or young women, 
aspiring, shall here find guidance, and be thus the 
source of well-doing and of inspiration among their 
fellows? He has seized hold of the most indestruc- 

[50] 



ROSENBERG DAY ADDRESS 

tible influence that exists among men, and its widen- 
ing circles and its far-reaching continuance may not 
be measured. And do not forget, either, that in the 
provisions that he has made, he has accomplished far- 
reaching results to preserve his memory, not merely 
because the institutions that he endowed are existing, 
but because of the spirit that caused their endow- 
ment. It will not be forgotten, even though this city 
in her growth shall achieve the importance that her 
situation and the enterprise of her citizens justify you 
in hoping for her and which you desire for her, even 
though it shall become a market notable among the 
great cities of the world, crowded with commerce 
and exchanges. There will be those who will remem- 
ber that here lived Henry Rosenberg, living the plain 
life of an ordinary man, apparently, but that in him 
was the spirit that remembered the dumb animals and 
would protect and render life easier for them. It 
will not be forgotten that here was a man who suc- 
cessfully sought wealth and fortune, but in whose 
inner soul was the recognition of the value of books 
and the knowledge that they are the world's real uni- 
versities. And men, under whatever conditions the 
future shall present, here and there and in dififerent 
places, will recall the dififerent qualities that he has 
illustrated, and it will touch and mold and fashion 
them. And so the life of the man and the character 
of the man will be living and continuing, an inde- 
structible influence for the elevation and the better- 
ment of this community, and through this community 

C5>] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

of all other communities, and the circle of his influ- 
ence shall widen and deepen and be enduring. 

I desire, if I can, to illustrate that truth somewhat 
more fully. And if I may make so bold, I do so with 
the endeavor to state briefly one of Hawthorne's 
stories with which most of you, doubtless, are fa- 
miliar, — the story of "The Great Stone Face." All 
of you recall how, in a little quiet, peaceful valley 
that lay between high mountains, a young boy was 
born; that in that valley there was a tradition in con- 
nection with a great mountain that sometimes took on 
the outlines of a human countenance, and under 
favorable aspects showed lineaments of grandeur and 
of majesty, and at other times showed a benignity and 
a placidity, and at others seemed to illustrate an ele- 
vated strength and wisdom. It was, of course, only 
a fancy; but in connection with it there was a tradi- 
tion that the greatest individual whom the valley 
would produce would come back at some time, and 
that he would have a resemblance to the outlines of 
the Great Stone Face. And the boy, who was familiar 
with the tradition and believed it, wondered if it 
would be his opportunity to see the valley's greatest 
individual who should bear this resemblance to the 
Great Stone Face with which he was familiar, and 
eagerly he waited the time. And presently a great 
merchant who had gone to the cities returned with 
the reputation of enormous wealth, and some said 
that here would be the individual who should look 
like the Great Stone Face. But when he came there 

CS2] 



ROSENBERG DAY ADDRESS 

was universal disappointment. And then a great sol- 
dier came back who had achieved reputation in the 
wars and become famous, and then a rumor went 
round that here would be the individual told of in 
tradition. Again it was plain that mean and little am- 
bitions had guided him, and there was disappoint- 
ment; and the youth felt it also. And then a famous 
statesman who had been born in the valley returned, 
famous for his wisdom in many ways, famous for his 
eloquence ; and men said that surely this would be the 
image of the Great Stone Face. And when he came 
the boy and others saw in his countenance the lines 
that indicated that selfishness had at times controlled 
him, and that not always had he been true to himself 
and his higher nature. Then came a poet, of glorious 
talents and power to make men see deeply hidden 
truths; but the poet, too, had fallen below his best 
estate. And always the youth, in contemplation, pon- 
dered the lines of benignity and grandeur and dwelt 
more and more upon the qualities of the face that had 
become idealized before him. And in the course of 
his life he had come to talk to his neighbors and to 
advise them in simple fashion; and reflection had 
given him wisdom, and deep love for his kind had 
given him eloquence, and honest living and pure 
thought had given him nobility; and influence flowed 
from his life and from his wisdom until middle age 
came. Then it was his habit to assemble his neigh- 
bors and counsel and talk with them of those things 
that elevated them most and bettered them, and he 

l53l 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

talked with a deep wisdom and a moving eloquence. 
And on an occasion when he did as was his wont, and 
his face was lit with high and noble thought, the poet 
was present; and the poet, having the keener insight 
and the surer vision, when the sun lit up the mountain 
and brought out in bold relief the outlines of the 
Great Stone Face and its glory, perceived the truth 
and called out to his neighbors, "My friends, Ernest 
is our greatest, for do you not see his resemblance to 
the Great Stone Face?" And all men saw it. 

Here in your physical levels no mountains lift their 
summits into the skies; but in the depths of your 
spiritual life there are lifted the outlines and linea- 
ments of a great character, of a spirit of surpassing 
nobility, in the life and in the deeds — more moving 
than eloquence — of Henry Rosenberg. And it is my 
hope, as it is my belief, that in the contemplation of 
the lineaments of his character and the outlines of his 
elevated spirit and his noble conception of duty, men 
through succeeding generations shall themselves 
come to take on something of those outlines and 
something of those elements of his nature and char- 
acter, because they shall have come, through long 
observation and contemplation, unconsciously to have 
absorbed those qualities which were his. 



1:5411 




"OUR BENEFACTOR" 

Erected by voluntary subscriptions under the auspices of a 
committee of citizens 



Plate No. 14 



THE STATUE OF HENRY ROSENBERG 

ON March 6, 1906, there was unveiled with ap- 
propriate ceremonies before the entrance to 
the Rosenberg Library a bronze statue of Henry 
Rosenberg, somewhat more than life size, the work 
of the sculptor Louis Amateis, of Washington, D. C, 
and a gift of the people of Galveston. Several thou- 
sand people assembled for the occasion and a number 
of business houses closed their doors during the exer- 
cises. 

The idea of a statue seems first to have been ex- 
pressed by Mr. Arthur B. Homer in a letter to the 
Galveston News of November 9, 1895, in which he 
ofifered to give $100 for this purpose. The movement 
to secure funds to erect a statue of the city's benefac- 
tor was begun by the Sidney Sherman Chapter of the 
Daughters of the Republic of Texas in December, 
1897. The original idea of the Chapter was that the 
statue should be executed in marble and be placed in 
the Library. It was later determined that it should 
be of bronze, and the finished statue was finally 
placed in front of the Library. After a beginning 
had been made toward collecting funds, the work was 
actively taken over by a committee of citizens organ- 
ized on April 25, 1900, with the following members: 
Charles Fowler, R. G. Lowe, Clarence Ousley, John 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

W. Hopkins, T. W. Dee, M. E. Kleberg, B. Adoue, 
J. P. Alvey, John Sealy, Mrs. J. C. League, Mrs. 
H. A. Landes, and Mrs. Cornelia Branch Stone. 
Judge Kleberg was elected chairman of the commit- 
tee; Mrs. Stone, secretary; and John Sealy, treasurer. 
This organization carried the work to completion. 



PROGRAM 

UNVEILING CEREMONIES OF THE STATUE OF HENRY 
ROSENBERG, GALVESTON, MARCH 6, 1906, 

FOUR o'clock P.m. 



Selection— National Airs .... Military Band 

(Conway R. Shaw, Director) 

Invocation Dr. J. K. Black 

Chorus— Texas Flag Song 

Children of the Rosenberg School 

Address Judge Robert G. Street 

Unveiling Statue .... Miss Nellie Macgill 

Music Military Band 

Introduction of L. Amateis 



/o , r T^ . o X ,'Mr. Clay Stone Briggs 

(Sculptor of Rosenberg btatue) J 

Chorus Children of Jlamo School 

Music Military Band 

Benediction Dr. J. K. Black 

C56: 




a 

w 
ec 

1^ 

w 

CO 

o 

W 

tin 
O 

p 

< 

h 

W 

H 

o 
:2 



> 



• o 






ADDRESS AT THE UNVEILING OF THE 
STATUE OF HENRY ROSENBERG 

BY HON. ROBERT G. STREET 

Men, Women, and Children of Galveston: 

YOU have come together to take part in unveiling 
the statue of Henry Rosenberg, presented by 
the people of this city as a token of their loving grati- 
tude for the wise benevolence with which he has be- 
stowed his fortune to supply the municipal wants of 
our city, humanitarian, educational, aesthetic, and 
patriotic, needs that had otherwise gone unsupplied 
or would have been supplied only after the lapse of 
generations. 
He 

. . . who in the love of Nature holds 
Communion with her visible forms, 

who in the quiet hours of the night gazes upon the 
starry firmament, who with attentive ear hears the 
whisper of the forest, the carol of the birds in the air, 
the murmur of the sea upon our shore, such an one 
irresistibly turns his gaze inward and meditates upon 
the yet greater mysteries of life, of death and immor- 
tality. Thus are we led to look from nature up to 
nature's God; and so it is in the lives of great men 
and of good and wise men, when we look at their 

[57:1 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

acts, the signal acts of their career, of their lives, or 
the presentment of those acts, we instinctively inquire. 
What is the history of this man? What his charac- 
ter? What the motives and purposes of his life? 

I am not unaware that there is abroad in the land 
a spirit of skepticism called "materialism"; and I 
would not defame this audience nor dishonor myself 
by supposing there is a single person here who par- 
ticipates in it; but this spirit of materialism is one 
that should be rebuked and crushed upon every 
proper occasion. I understand the sentiment that they 
would entertain with reference to what I have said as 
to the character of the man being the significance of 
the gift, the spiritual forces that were behind the gift; 
they have their language like the criminal class — 
they would express their view by saying that "money 
talks" — that character, that motive, that purpose, that 
lofty aspirations, that spiritual impulses, have naught 
to do with it, that any other million of dollars would 
have worked the same effect, the same ends. I reply 
no, no, a thousand times no! Character and the 
spiritual impulses behind the act are the essence of it, 
and no power can stay their influences for good in 
this community. Only He who can bridle the winds 
can do it; He who laid His hand upon the Sea of 
Galilee and bade it be still and it was still; He who 
divided the waters of Jordan and bade them flow 
back upon themselves that His people might pass 
over; He who commanded His servant to say to the 
sun, "Sun, stand thou still on Hebron," and "Thou 



STATUE OF HENRY ROSENBERG 

moon in the valley Ajalon"; and He, my fellow citi- 
zens, will not do it because those spiritual influences 
are His own messages to this people and to mankind, 
whereby He communicates to them the knowledge 
that they are made in His image and intimates eter- 
nity to man. 

When Nature conceives the purpose of making a 
great man or a good and wise man, from all her 
realm, physical and metaphysical, she extracts from 
every object, from every thought, its essence, its 
sweetest, most precious elixir, and in her own labora- 
tory she cunningly mixes them in a mold for the mak- 
ing of a man. But, O my fellow citizens, he is not 
yet made. It is only the mold of the man, and that 
Nature, the rigorous mother, exposes him to the vicis- 
situdes of life for twenty years, it may be, for forty 
years more frequently, exposes him to the winds, to 
the storms of heaven, to the weaknesses, to the pas- 
sions of earth, to the fires of hell itself. But if he 
shall withstand the temptations; if he shall stand 
the ordeal to which he has been subjected, — oh, 
how generous that Mother Nature then becomes! 
Here is one of her choicest specimens, and with all 
her omnipotent power, by a concatenation of events 
in the moral and physical world, she brings the man 
and the hour together. Such a scene was described 
by Thomas M. Jack when, speaking of Albert Sidney 
Johnston at the battle of Shiloh, he said: "He was 
like the genius of battle and of victory as he rode, lit 
up and glowing, down the line of his army, a match- 

1:593 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

less example of a great man on a great occasion, ris- 
ing steadily and loftily to all the duties of that day, 
when it seemed that the fate of his army and the cause 
of his country hung upon his sword. We have all, 
my fellow citizens, every one of us here, an acquain- 
tance with a scene and an act in our own day of equal 
significance, — upon the first of May, 1898, upon a far 
distant sea, with the first glimmering of dawn upon 
the land of the early morning light, when there came 
a still, quiet but thrilling voice from the deck of the 
American flagship, when Dewey said: "You may fire 
now, Gridley, when you are ready." 

And so it is, my fellow citizens, through twenty 
years, aye, forty years, when these threads of life have 
been spun, that all in a moment they are gathered 
together in a strand that makes a cable strong as steel. 

And so it was, my fellow citizens, with him to 
whose memory we are here to express our gratitude 
to-day; when, having from earth struggled up the 
rugged ascent of fortune, and by the heroic and spir- 
itual efforts of his character, by his excellent fore- 
sight and judgment, acquired the good things of this 
life, then, in the evening of his life, at the close of the 
day, in the retirement of his home, in his accustomed 
arm-chair, he seated himself with pencil and paper 
in hand to meditate how he might best dispose of the 
goods with which God had blessed him for the bene- 
fit of his fellow man. O sublime spectacle — sublime 
spectacle passing description! Here the arts of 
Poetry and Oratory stand dumb and abashed in the 

[603 



STATUE OF HENRY ROSENBERG 

presence of the plastic art of Sculpture. What they 
dare not attempt to describe she has, as with one 
stroke, at one glance, disclosed to the hearts and to 
the minds of men. 

I will not seek to enumerate the different gifts 
made by Mr. Rosenberg to the city of Galveston, the 
impulses in which they originated, the purposes that 
they were intended to subserve; nor will I undertake 
to follow the story of his life. These things have 
been done; they have been done better than I could 
hope to do them. They were done by the President 
of the Rosenberg Library Association on the day of 
the dedication of this building — done in a masterly 
manner. But as this, less important, is an unwritten 
address, that was also unwritten. And now before the 
time is past I call upon Major Mott, as the President 
of that Association, as the nearest friend of Henry 
Rosenberg now living, perhaps, — I call upon him in 
the public capacity in which I speak to-day, to com- 
mit that address to writing, that it may be printed 
and preserved among the archives of the Rosenberg 
Library for the stimulation and encouragement of 
the youths of this land for all time. 

I said I should not attempt to enumerate Mr. 
Rosenberg's gifts to the city, to tell you in detail of 
the features of his character that so command our 
admiration. I will, however, briefly endeavor to 
classify under three heads some of those objects. And 
first, as to education. It was Mr. Rosenberg's privi- 
lege while yet alive to have built the Rosenberg 

1:61] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

School. It was his delight to witness its construction 
as it progressed. It was his happiness to see the smil- 
ing faces of the children who were housed there, pur- 
suing the course of public education in this city, — 
one of the greatest happinesses of his life; and it was 
to the Rosenberg School, to the assembly hall of that 
building, that when he died his remains were borne, 
and there thousands of school children on that day, in 
the hours devoted to that purpose, took their last view 
of their friend Henry Rosenberg. And now, on this 
day on which I speak, in but a few moments they will 
have the happiness, they will have the stimulation 
and encouragement, on this and on all future days, of 
viewing his presentment by the art of the sculptor. 

Mr. Rosenberg thoroughly understood and appre- 
ciated the value of free public education as essential 
to the maintenance of free government, and it was 
with this view, and urged by thoughts of this charac- 
ter, he made that donation, that it gave him the plea- 
sure that it did. And let me say to these children who 
are gathered here, I ask your attention one moment; 
you enjoy to-day in that school and the other public 
schools of this city privileges that neither Mr. Rosen- 
berg enjoyed nor the speaker before you, — privileges 
of education that could not in his day or in my day 
have been purchased by money at all, because of the 
improved methods of instruction. And what is the 
significance of all this? We have heard much talk 
of a political character about all men being born free 
and equal. All that the American citizen wants is 

1:62:1 



STATUE OF HENRY ROSENBERG 

freedom of opportunity, and that is what public 
school education in this land gives to free men. 

Come, my fellow citizens, a few blocks south of 
this and let us stand for a moment at the foot of the 
statue of the Heroes of the Republic. I passed that 
statue or near it some days ago, and I saw a gentleman 
who did not see me, who was accustomed to pass it, 
and he looked, as though half ashamed of what he 
did, to see whether any one was watching him, — he 
lifted his eyes to its shaft, raised his hat and bowed in 
reverence, and passed on. So in countless instances 
these objects of civic art with which our city is now 
being adorned, the two most conspicuous being the 
statue to the Heroes of the Republic and the one 
around which we are gathered, will at the same time 
demand and receive from those who pass by, even 
though they halt not, inspiration and reverence. 
There we see the majestic figure of Victory crowning 
this community with the arts of peace. There we see 
the allegorical figures of Peace and of War. There 
we see the bas-reliefs presenting the massacre of 
Goliad, the fall of the Alamo, the battle of San Ja- 
cinto, and the capture of Santa Anna. And there are 
inscribed on tablets the names of the heroes of Texas. 

O my friends, art for art's sake is artless and soon 
ceases to be art at all. Art for the market-place is 
commerce. But art for the people's service, for the 
diffusion of joy in a wide-spread commonalty, is an 
inherent, vital, and permanent element in human life. 

When you and I have been consigned to the house 

[163] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

appointed for all living, may love of country and 
pride of country glow with equal fervor in the breasts 
of those to whom our names and our blood have de- 
scended! When decrepit age shall lean against the 
base of this monument, and troops of ingenuous 
youths shall circle around, and one to the other shall 
tell the story of its objects and its purposes, and the 
glorious events with which it is connected, then shall 
arise from every youthful breast, "Thank God, I, too, 
am an American and a Texan!" 

And finally I come to speak a few words with re- 
gard to the building at whose portals we now stand, 
as it was also the final bequest, the residuary bequest, 
in Mr. Rosenberg's will. Here this institution stands 
for self-culture, in all of its varied departments of 
science, of philosophy, of literature, of art, and of 
mechanics, all the various avenues of knowledge; and 
here, with the trained and intelligent assistance of the 
executive management of the institution, all find 
ready guide to such information as they desire, from 
the youngest to the oldest, from the merest child to 
the scholar and the student. From out the portals of 
this institution in the days to come, — aye, in the ages 
to come, — there will flow into this community en- 
nobling, uplifting spiritual influences that will make 
better citizens of these people, that will make happier 
homes. 

What matters it where the theatre of action is? 
What matters it whether it be conspicuous or modest 
and obscure? If a man but does well his part in this 

C64] 



STATUE OF HENRY ROSENBERG 

world, if his mind is but to him the kingdom which 
knowledge may make it, then, and then only, is he 
free and independent. I said but a few moments since 
that this spiritual influence would go on through- 
out all time for our amelioration and for our enlight- 
enment. I will not address any further remarks 
to materialists, whom I do not believe to be pres- 
ent; but there are others, — others who are known by 
the saying that they believe only in the prophecies 
that have been fulfilled. I believe that they are apos- 
trophized by the Saviour as "O ye of little faith." 
Perhaps, if I mistake not, they are called the Laodi- 
ceans. And they may say that what I have said about 
the spiritual influences to flow from Mr. Rosenberg's 
gift because of his character behind them, because of 
the noble purpose of his life, are unfulfilled prophe- 
cies. These acts of Mr. Rosenberg, the making of these 
donations to the city of Galveston, the giving to you 
his large fortune, were but a culmination of his life. 
And to those who doubt and are skeptical and say 
these spiritual influences are not proved in facts, I 
reply, I will give you substantial facts. 

Whence this gathering here to-day? This is a solid 
fact. The business houses of this town are closed, as 
they have very rarely been before, that everybody 
may have an opportunity of being present; and it 
seems to me that you are all here. And why? Was 
it because a million of dollars had been bestowed on 
the city of Galveston for educational and other pur- 
poses? Has the character of Henry Rosenberg, who 

1:65] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

acquired the fortune; have the purposes he had in 
view, have the impulses which actuated him through- 
out his life and in these bequests, have they nothing 
to do with it? Surely they have. Is this practical? 
Is this the effect of spiritual influences to which I 
have referred? 

Let us progress another step. Wills bequeathing 
large amounts for eleemosynary purposes in this 
country are more frequently broken in the courts than 
otherwise. Why was it not so here? The spiritual 
influences that animated the man, that energized and 
characterized his gifts, animated likewise, through 
sympathy, the one nearest and dearest to him. And all 
was done to promote his intentions, to further them. 

Wills in which such donations are made are oft- 
times defeated in the courts of this country because of 
the unskilfulness with which they are written. But 
no invalid technical words were used by the hand 
that drew this will, but the plain, earnest, and signifi- 
cant terms used were those best adapted to make the 
will itself perfect. Is this all? How often have you 
seen fortunes that have been thus bequeathed squan- 
dered by corrupt executors and trustees. This for- 
tune was left in the hands of two gentlemen of modest 
means. I venture to say that this million of dol- 
lars, consisting of stocks and bonds, lands and other 
securities, was left, without security, in the hands of 
two men, neither of whom had himself a fortune of 
$50,000. Yet every dollar of it has reached its right- 
ful destination, and now, in the fullness of God's own 

[66] 



STATUE OF HENRY ROSENBERG 

time, is working for the ennoblement and advance- 
ment of this people. Tell me that spiritual influences 
are not the strongest in this life! 

Mr. Rosenberg did not make it a crime for a man 
to die rich in Galveston, but he did make it an offense 
against civic virtue for a man to die rich in Galveston 
without doing something noble for his city. 

In a lecture delivered in this building, where 
everything is free, by a cultured gentleman, a mem- 
ber of the faculty of the University of Texas, a few 
nights since, on the Acropolis of Athens, many of you 
heard, as I had the pleasure of doing, his description 
of the Parthenon erected on that elevation overlook- 
ing the city — how it was constructed of the most 
precious and priceless material, brought from all 
parts of the then known world; how skilful architects 
and sculptors wrought their handiwork upon it, mak- 
ing it the noblest temple ever erected by man — unless 
it be that of Solomon. And why was this temple 
built? To house one figure only — that of Athena, the 
goddess of the city. That temple, renewed more or 
less in the course of the passage of nearly 2500 years, 
still stands with but little of the original material in 
it. But there is not a vestige to be found, there or 
elsewhere, of the statue of Athena, hewn, sculptured 
by the matchless hand of Phidias himself. But the 
people of Galveston have enthroned in a temple of 
their own, in a Parthenon which ,each one has con- 
structed for himself, in the temple of his heart of 
hearts, the image of Henry Rosenberg. 

1:673 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

I think, if I recollect rightly, that it is in that splen- 
did essay of Plutarch on the life of Pericles, when 
urging us all to look upon those objects and to con- 
sider those thoughts that make for our improvement, 
our ennoblement and advancement, in all that is 
good, in all that is worthy, rather than to waste our 
time and our efforts and spend our energies upon 
things that are trivial, superficial and quickly pass 
away, he adds that it is the singular office of virtue 
from out all the world, and of objects that remind us 
of virtuous acts, to produce in the heart of man the 
desire of imitation. In his own words, "the desire of 
doing the like." 

Citizens of Galveston, on behalf of the committee 
who have honored me with the place I now occupy, 
speaking in your name and by your authority, asking 
the blessing of God to consecrate the act, I now 
crown Henry Rosenberg, to be known in this com- 
munity from this day by no other name than "Our 
Benefactor." 



[68] 



CHRONOLOGY 

1824 

June 22. Henry Rosenberg born in Bilten, Canton 
Glarus, Switzerland, son of Rudolf and Waldburg 
Rosenberg. 

■843 

February 6. Landed at New Orleans on his way to 
Galveston, where at the age of nineteen he entered 
the employ of John Hessly, dry-goods merchant, 
at a salary of $8 a month, at what is now 21 19 Mar- 
ket Street. Had served an apprenticeship as fabric 
printer at his home in Switzerland and had been 
employed by John Hessly's father in his mercantile 
business at Glarus. 

1846 

Bought the dry-goods business from John Hessly 
and continued it. Sent to Switzerland for his 
nephews, Joseph Blum and Daniel Steussy, to help 
him in his store, and later loaned them capital to 
start in business at 414 22d Street, where Keenan's 
store now is. 

1848 

May 4. Bought from John Hessly the two lots al 
21 13 to 21 19 Market Street for $5000. 

:69] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

1851 

June ii. Was married to Miss Letitia Cooper, a 
native of Virginia, in Galveston, by Rev. Homer S. 
Thrall, D.D. Miss Cooper had her millinery- 
store next to Mr. Rosenberg's store on the east. 
They lived in a two-story wood building at 21 19 
Market Street until Mr. Rosenberg's residence was 
completed in i860. This house was afterward 
moved to 1928 Avenue F; it now belongs to the 
estate of J. C. League. 

1858-1859 
Erected a large three-story, iron-front, brick build- 
ing on the southwest corner of Market and 22d 
Streets. Enlarged it later. Had the most exten- 
sive retail dry-goods store in Texas. Continued 
this business until 1875. 

i860 

January i. Moved into his new residence just com- 
pleted at the northwest corner of Market and 13th 
Streets. 

This year, or a little later, erected the two-story 
brick building at 21 13 to 21 19 Market Street, now 
known as the Freeman building. 

1866 
April 13. Appointed Vice-Consul of Switzerland. 

1701 



CHRONOLOGY 

1868 

Elected a Director of the First National Bank. 
Continued as Director for several years. 

1869 

September 6. Appointed Consul of Switzerland. 
Continued as Consul until his death. Board of 
Harbor Improvements (Albert Somerville, John 
Sealy, Henry Rosenberg, J. Frederich, J. M. 
Brown) elected him President. Board was active 
until early part of 1873, using about $150,000 for 
Galveston harbor improvements. 

1871 

June 5. One of twelve men appointed by Governor 
Davis as Aldermen of Galveston. Was Chairman 
of Committee on Licenses and Assessments and 
member of Committee on Finance and Revenue 
and Committee on Markets. President of Galves- 
ton Hotel Co., a corporation whose object was to 
build a first-class hotel. Began the building now 
known as the Tremont Hotel, later selling to the 
contractors, Burnett & Kilpatrick. President 
Galveston City Railroad Company. Probably 
President, or at least a Director, for some years. 
Erected a three-story brick and iron front building 
for stores and offices at 2309-23 11 Strand. 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

1873 
June 19. Became a Commissioner of Gulf, Colo- 
rado & Santa Fe Railway Company (chartered 
May 28). 

November 24. Became a Director of Gulf, Colo- 
rado & Santa Fe Railway Company, and member 
of Executive Committee, November 26. Con- 
tinued as Director until the road was sold in 1886 
to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway sys- 
tem. 

1874 

December 21. Elected President of Gulf, Colorado 
& Santa Fe Railway Company. Continued as 
President until December 18, 1877. No salary was 
paid the President while Mr. Rosenberg held the 
office. First fifty miles of road built during his 
presidency. Organized Galveston Bank and Trust 
Co., Henry Rosenberg, President and Manager; 
J. M. Brown, Vice-President. This company 
erected the building at 2209 Market Street. 

1875 

Opened bank with paid-up capital of $200,000 and 
authorized capital of $500,000. Continued until 
1882. 

1876 

April. Elected Vestryman of Trinity Episcopal 
Church. Probably a Vestryman for some years 

Z721 



CHRONOLOGY 

before and after this time. A Director of Galves- 
ton Wharf Company. Probably a Director for 
several years. A Director of Union Marine and 
Fire Insurance Company. A Director of the 
Agricultural, Horticultural, and Industrial Asso- 
ciation. Probably a Director for several years. 

.879 

March. Eleven leading citizens of Galveston (Mr. 
Rosenberg included) formed a syndicate and 
bought the stock and franchises of the Gulf, Colo- 
rado & Santa Fe Railway Company from Galves- 
ton County and individuals and then pushed the 
work of building the road with increased vigor 
and success. 

1882 

March 19. Eaton Chapel dedicated. Mr. Rosen- 
berg had contributed about half the cost. 

April. Galveston Bank and Trust Co. business liqui- 
dated and Mr. Rosenberg became successor. 
Bought the bank building for $28,000. 

May 2. Opened business as H. Rosenberg, Banker. 
Sole owner of the bank as long as he lived. 

1883 

July. Became a Director of the Galveston Orphans' 
Home. Continued as Director until his death. 
Was Vice-President from this time until 1892. 

1:73!] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

1885 
March. Elected Alderman from Second Ward for 
a term of two years. Chairman of Committee of 
Finance and Revenue. Member of Committees 
on Fire Department, Water Supply, and Public 
Library. Chairman of Board of Health. 

1888 

April 5. Sent a letter to the Board of School Trus- 
tees offering to donate $40,000 for a public school 
building to be located on the west side of nth 
Street, between Avenues G and H, a half block 
recently acquired by the School Board. Corner- 
stone of this building laid with Masonic ceremony 
June 30. 

June 4. Death of Mrs. Letitia Cooper Rosenberg. 

1889 

January. Elected Vice-President of Galveston 
Wharf Company. Continued as Vice-President 
and a Director to the time of his death. 

February 15. Henry Rosenberg Free School build- 
ing dedicated. Mr. Rosenberg gave personal at- 
tention to the construction and secured a well-built 
edifice costing him about $75,000. 

November 13. Was married to Miss Mollie Ragan 
Macgill of Hagerstown, Md., in Grace Episcopal 
Church, Richmond, Va., by Rev. Hartley Car- 
michael, D.D. 

[743 



CHRONOLOGY 

1890-1891 

Visited Bilten, his native village in Switzerland, 
with Mrs. Rosenberg in the summer of 1890, and 
again in the summer of 1891. Had the village 
church renovated and improved at a cost of $5000. 
In this church Henry Rosenberg was christened in 
1824 and confirmed in 1840. 

1892 

February. Elected President of Galveston Or- 
phans' Home, holding that office until his death. 

1893 
May 12. Henry Rosenberg died at his home in Gal- 
veston. 

May 14. Body lay in state at Rosenberg School 
building. Funeral services held at Rosenberg 
School and at Grace Episcopal Church. Body 
placed temporarily in the vault of Dr. J. F. Y. 
Paine in Cahill Cemetery, Galveston. 

May 20. That part of the will containing the public 
bequests published in the newspapers, showing these 
gifts to be not less than $600,000, the residuary 
legacy being for a free public library. Major A. J. 
Walker and William J. Frederich named execu- 
tors of the estate, and Colonel M. F. Mott, at- 
torney. 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

May 30. An audience of five or six thousand people 
assembled at Ball High School Square to do honor 
to the memory of Henry Rosenberg. 

May 31. Final interment in Loudon Park Ceme- 
tery, Baltimore, Maryland. Business houses in 
Galveston closed as a mark of respect. 

July 17. Will probated and recorded by the Galves- 
ton County Court. 

August 5. Inventory of appraisers showed the value 
of the estate to be $1,107,737. 



1894 

March 14. Four of the most valuable pieces of real 
estate of the Rosenberg Estate were sold at auction 
by Penland & Breath at the southwest corner of 
Strand and 22d Streets for the executors, as fol- 
lows: 

1. Three-story brick and iron front building at 
2201-2205 Market Street, once Mr. Rosenberg's 
dry-goods store (62 x 120 feet), occupied by E. D. 
Garratt & Co. as a dry-goods store. Sold to E. D. 
Garratt for $60,750. 

2. Two-story brick and iron front building at 
21 13-21 19 Market Street, where Mr. Rosenberg 
started in business (86 x 120 feet), occupied by J. 
Grossmayer, clothing, and Ikelheimer & Co., dry 
goods, with offices on the second floor. Sold to 

[763 



CHRONOLOGY 

G. A. Meyer, agent for Mrs. Mary Freeman, for 
$76,600. 

3. Three-story brick building at 2025-2027 
Strand (49 x 120 feet), occupied by wholesale and 
retail stores and by offices. Sold to G. A. Meyer, 
agent for Mrs. Mary Freeman, for $25,000. 

4. Three-story brick and iron front building at 
2309-23 1 1 Strand (43 x 120 feet), occupied by a 
store and offices. Sold to G. A. Meyer, agent for 
Mrs. Mary Freeman, for $18,100. 

July 27. Plans adopted for the Orphans' Home. 

July. Site purchased for the Woman's Home. 

August 29. Site purchased for the Y. M. C. A. 

October 20. Corner-stone of the Orphans' Home 
laid. 

December 23. Corner-stone of Grace Episcopal 
Church laid. 

1895 

April 9. Corner-stone of the Woman's Home laid. 

November 15. The Orphans' Home dedicated. 

November 17. Grace Episcopal Church conse- 
crated. 

1896 

January 22. The Woman's Home formally opened. 

March 10. Corner-stone of the Y. M. C. A. build- 
ing laid. 

C77: 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

August 17. Sites selected for seventeen drinking 
fountains. 

October 13. Design for the Texas Heroes' Monu- 
ment accepted. 

1897 

December i i. Statue of Henry Rosenberg proposed 
by Sidney Sherman Chapter, Daughters of the Re- 
public of Texas, and collection of contributions to 
the fund begun. 

1898 

January i. The Y. M. C. A. building formally 
dedicated. 

December 4. Drinking fountains inspected and de- 
livered to the city. 

December 14. Death of William J. Frederich, one 
of the executors. 

1900 
April 21. The Texas Heroes' Monument dedicated. 

April 25. A Rosenberg Statue committee of citizens 
organized with M. E. Kleberg as chairman to 
obtain subscriptions and have the statue made. 

July 10. Charter granted by the State to the Rosen- 
berg Library Association. Charter signed by Ma- 
jor A. J. Walker, Captain J. P. Alvey, and I. 
Lovenberg. 

October 17. Board of Directors of Rosenberg Li- 
brary organized. Major A. J. Walker chosen 
President. 

C78] 



CHRONOLOGY 

1901 

February. Rosenberg Library Board of Directors 
received from Major A. J. Walker, Executor of the 
Rosenberg Estate, for the Library, the residue of 
the estate, valued at $620,529.69. 

May 15. Site bought for Rosenberg Library at 
northwest corner of Tremont Street and Sealy 
Avenue. 

August. Alfred F. Rosenheim, of St. Louis, em- 
ployed as consulting architect by the Rosenberg 
Library Board of Directors and a Competition 
Program issued August 23. 

October 3 1 . Design of Eames & Young, of St. Louis, 
for Rosenberg Library building selected. 

December 30. Goldthwaite house on library site 
sold to John Focke for $500. 

1902 

March 21. General contract for construction of 
Rosenberg Library building awarded to Harry 
Devlin, of Galveston, for $126,500. 

October 18. Corner-stone of Rosenberg Library 
laid with Masonic ceremony. 

1903 

July 24. Frank C. Patten, Librarian-elect, arrived 
in Galveston to begin his duties. 

C79: 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

1904 

June 2. The right to erect an addition to the Cen- 
tral (Colored) High School building for a branch 
of Rosenberg Library for the use of the colored 
citizens of Galveston was given to the Rosenberg 
Library Association by the Board of Trustees of 
Galveston Public Schools. 

June 18. Called meeting of the Board of Trustees 
held at the library building, at which it was re- 
ported that the Library was now ready to be 
opened. Reports were presented on the work of 
the Directors and the expenditures to date for site, 
building, furniture, and books. 

June 22. Rosenberg Library dedicated at 8 P.M. 
Building open for public inspection in the after- 
noon and evening. This was the beginning of the 
annual memorial celebration of Mr. Rosenberg's 
birthday at the Library. Such a celebration had 
been held yearly for a few years previous at the 
Y. M. C. A. Library opened the next morning for 
regular public use. 

November 9. Wednesday Club began holding its 
meetings at the Rosenberg Library. First club 
meeting held at the Library. 

November 29. Death of Major A. J. Walker, Ex- 
ecutor of the Rosenberg Estate and President of 
the Board of Directors of Rosenberg Library. 

[So: 



CHRONOLOGY 

December 3. Colonel M. F. Mott elected President 
of the Library Board of Directors; John Sealy, 
Vice-President; and F. L. Lee, a Director. 

December 8. Began an exhibit of holiday books for 
children. First library exhibit. 

1905 

January ii. The Colored Branch of Rosenberg 
Library opened. 

January 12. The City Commission decided to turn 
over to the Rosenberg Library the books of the 
Public Library and to discontinue that library Feb- 
ruary 28, 1905. Said to be 7505 volumes and a 
registration of 5468. 

January 12. First annual meeting of Rosenberg 
Library Trustees held. Full reports of Treasurer 
and Librarian presented. 

January 18. Books of Public Library accepted by 
Directors of Rosenberg Library. 

February 15. Moving of Public Library books to 
Rosenberg Library completed. Resulted in add- 
ing 3200 volumes to the Library, 1500 of which 
were United States public documents. 

March 17-21. Rosenberg Library Free Lecture 
courses opened auspiciously with four lectures by 
Jenkin Lloyd Jones, of the University Extension 
Division of Chicago University. 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

November 6. Death of Mayor W. T. Austin, mem- 
ber of the Board of Directors. Succeeded by W. T. 
Armstrong. 

November 27. First meeting of the Texas Histori- 
cal Society at Rosenberg Library. The valuable 
collection of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and 
other historical material of this Society had al- 
ready been deposited in the Rosenberg Library in 
September, 1904. 

1906 

March 6. Rosenberg statue unveiled in front of the 
library building. 

May 2. A fine enlarged photograph of the Ruins of 
the Parthenon donated to the Library by the 
Wednesday Club. First donation to the Library 
of a fine work of art. 

November 18. Death of Colonel M. F. Mott, Attor- 
ney for the Rosenberg Estate and President of the 
Library Board of Directors. 

November 26. John Sealy elected President of the 
Board of Directors; F. L. Lee, Vice-President; 
and R. Waverley Smith, Director. 



1907 

May 25. Bust of Major A. J. Walker, first President 
of the Library Board of Directors, placed in the 
Library. 

CSan 



CHRONOLOGY 

1909 

March 2. President Charles W. Eliot, of Harvard 
University, visited Galveston and made an address 
at the library lecture hall on Galveston's contribu- 
tion to good municipal rule, the commission form 
of government. 

May I. First annual celebration of Rosenberg Day, 
or Founder's Day, recently established by the Li- 
brary Board of Directors. Made a school holiday 
by the Galveston School Board. Previous annual 
celebrations were on the twenty-second of June, the 
birthday of Henry Rosenberg. 

1910 

January. Began the publication of a Library Bul- 
letin of sixteen pages, to be issued five times a year. 

November. Alterations in basement and new shelv- 
ing provided storage for 20,000 volumes, in addi- 
tion to shelving previously placed in the basement 
from time to time for about 20,000 volumes. 

1912 
January 18. Resignation of H. A. Landes, member 
of the Board of Directors, on account of removal 
from city. Succeeded by W. R. A. Rogers. 

1914 
June 9. Death of F. L. Lee, Vice-President of the 
Board of Directors. Succeeded by R. Waverley 
Smith. Dr. Edward Randall elected Director. 

C83] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

1915 
April i. New Children's Rooms, with fine new 
equipment, opened in second story. 

1916 

May. Lanier property adjoining the library site 
bought, making the library site a full half block. 

October. Third and enlarged edition of Rosenberg 
Library Handbook issued. 

October 11-13. Annual meeting of Texas Library 
Association held in Rosenberg Library lecture hall. 

December 21. Death of Captain J. P. Alvey, Li- 
brary Treasurer. Succeeded by H. O. Stein as 
Director and as Treasurer. 

1917 

May 29. Death of Mrs. Mollie Ragan Macgill 
Rosenberg, widow of Henry Rosenberg. 

October 7. Death of L Lovenberg, Library Secre- 
tary. Succeeded by Ballinger Mills as Director 
and as Secretary. 



1:843 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 

The facts of the life of Henry Rosenberg are con- 
tained briefly in the following: 

"The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography," 

Vol. IX, pp. 523-525. 
Brown's "Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas," pp. 

143-147- 

Additional matter is obtainable from the Rosenberg 
Library's volumes of press clippings, and from the 
bound files of the Galveston News. 




1:85] 



\ 



Part II 



B E Q^U E S T S 



GIFTS AND BEQUESTS OF 

HENRY ROSENBERG 

FOR PUBLIC PURPOSES 

IN GALVESTON 
Eaton Chapel, about half of cost 

(1882) $10,000 

RosenbergSchool Building ( 1 889) 75,000 
Galveston Orphans' Home, for 

building 30,000 

Grace Episcopal Church, for 

church building 30,000 

Ladies' Aid Society of the German 

Lutheran Church, for charitable 

purposes 10,000 

Letitia Rosenberg Woman's 

Home, for site and building . . 30,000 
Galveston Y. M. C. A., for site and 

building 65,000 

Monument to the Memory of the 

Heroes of the Texas Revolution 

of 1836 50,000 

Seventeen drinking fountains for 

men and beasts 30,000 

Residue of estate bequeathed in 

trust to his executors for the 

C89] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

foundation and endowment of a 
free public library with free lec- 
tures. The library assets are 
now over $900,000, but at the 
time of Mr. Rosenberg's death 
it seemed probable the amount 

would be about 400,000 

$730,000 



IN HIS NATIVE VILLAGE, BILTEN, 
SWITZERLAND 

The village church of Bilten, for 

renovation (1891) $5,000 

The Waisenamt (Orphanage) of 

Bilten, for a perpetual fund . . 50,000 

The Gemeinde (Commune) of 

Bilten, for a perpetual fund . . 30,000 



85,000 
$815,000 



190-2 



THE WILL OF HENRY ROSENBERG 

In the Name of God, Amen. I, Henry Rosenberg, 
of the County of Galveston and State of Texas, being 
in good health and of sound and disposing mind and 
memory, do make and publish this my last will and 
testament, hereby revoking all other wills by me at 
any time heretofore made. 

1. I appoint A. J. Walker and William J. Freder- 
ich of the City and County of Galveston, Texas, 
executors of this my will, and direct that my estate 
be administered and finally distributed without the 
jurisdiction or proceedings of any court; and that 
no action be had in the county court or in any court 
in the administration of my estate other than to prove 
and record this will and return an inventory; and I 
further direct that no security shall be required of 
my said executors and that they qualify without bond. 

2. My executors are hereby vested with full power 
and authority to carry into effect the provisions of 
this my will, independent of the courts; to make sale 
and conveyance of any or all portions of my estate, 
real or personal, except that which is hereinafter 
specifically devised; and I direct that they shall 
apply to M. F. Mott, attorney at law, Galveston, 
Texas, who is my confidential lawyer, for all legal 

C90 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

advice and assistance they may require in the man- 
agement and administration of my estate. It is my 
will that the specific legacies hereinafter mentioned 
shall be distributed and paid by my executors in the 
order named, as soon after my death as possible; but 
they are not to be hurried by my devisees to the extent 
of requiring them to sacrifice property for the pay- 
ment of the moneyed legacies. In case of the death 
or failure of either of my executors to act, the re- 
maining executor shall have full title, power and 
authority to carry into effect the provisions of this 
will. 

3. I direct that all my just debts, expenses of last 
illness and funeral expenses be paid as soon after my 
death as practicable. . . . 

8. I give to the benevolent administration Waise- 
namt, Bilten, Canton Glarus, Switzerland, for educa- 
tional and charitable purposes, fifty thousand dollars. 

9. I give the Gemeinde, Bilten, Canton Glarus, in 
Switzerland, thirty thousand dollars for educational 
and charitable purposes. 

10. I give to my executor, William J. Frederich, 
fifteen thousand dollars; to my executor, A. J. 
Walker, ten thousand dollars; and to my friend and 
attorney, M. F. Mott, ten thousand dollars; said 
amounts to be in full payment to my said executors 
and attorney for services to be rendered in and about 
the administration of my estate, and in lieu of com- 
missions and legal service fees. . . . 

1:923 



WILL OF HENRY ROSENBERG 

14. I give to the Island City Protestant and Israel- 
itish Orphans' Home in the city of Galveston, thirty 
thousand dollars to be used by the trustees for build- 
ing purposes only; and I charge my executors with 
the duty of seeing that this fund is properly applied. 

15. I give to Grace Church Parish, Episcopal de- 
nomination, in the city of Galveston, Texas, thirty 
thousand dollars, to be used for building a church on 
or near the lots now occupied by it for church pur- 
poses in the western portion of the city; and I charge 
my executors with the duty of carrying out this 
bequest. 

16. I give to the Ladies' Aid Society of the Ger- 
man Lutheran Church, ten thousand dollars to be 
used by them for charitable purposes. 

17. I give thirty thousand dollars to procure and 
furnish an appropriate building for the Woman's 
Home, of Galveston, or by whatever name it may be 
known at the time of my decease. I charge my execu- 
tors with the duty of executing this bequest; and 
whenever they have procured a suitable building and 
lots, and furnished the same, they shall convey, or 
cause the same to be conveyed, to the organization by 
its then legal name. 

18. I give sixty-five thousand dollars for the pur- 
chase (or erection) of a suitable building for the use 
of the Young Men's Christian Association of Galves- 
ton. The said sum of sixty-five thousand dollars 
shall include cost of the ground upon which the 

[93 !] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

building stands, and is also to include cost of neces- 
sary repairs in case a building is purchased. My 
executors are charged with the execution of this be- 
quest. Whenever they have procured the appro- 
priate property, they shall convey, or cause the same 
to be conveyed, to the proper organization or trustees 
of said association. 

19. I give fifty thousand dollars for the erection 
of an appropriate monument in the city of Galveston 
to the memory of the heroes of the Texas revolution 
of 1836. The execution of this bequest is charged 
upon my executors, who will adopt plans and have 
the monument erected under their immediate super- 
vision. 

20. I give thirty thousand dollars for the erection 
of not less than ten drinking fountains for man and 
beast in various portions of the city of Galveston, 
localities to be selected by my executors. This be- 
quest, however, is upon the proviso that the city of 
Galveston shall obtain an abundant supply of good 
drinking water within five years after my death. 
Failing in thus obtaining such supply of good drink- 
ing water, then I direct that, after the expiration of 
the time herein limited, one half of said thirty thou- 
sand dollars shall be given to the orphan asylum men- 
tioned in the fourteenth clause of this will, and the 
other half thereof to the woman's home mentioned 
in the seventeenth clause of this will. 

21. All the rest and residue of my estate of which 

1:943 



WILL OF HENRY ROSENBERG 

I shall die seized or possessed, or to which I shall be 
entitled at the time of my decease, I give to my said 
executors in trust for the purpose following: They 
shall preserve and maintain the same and reinvest the 
income thereof for a period of two years after my 
death. At the expiration of said two years they shall 
organize and endow a free public library for the use 
of the people of Galveston, together with free lec- 
tures upon practical, literary, and scientific subjects, 
and such other incidents to a great public library as 
may be most conducive to the improvement, instruc- 
tion, and elevation of the citizens of Galveston; and 
for this purpose they shall cause an association to be 
chartered with such trustees and directors as they 
may deem expedient, under such rules and regula- 
tions as will best carry out this devise. In making 
this bequest, I desire to express in a practical form 
my affection for the city of my adoption and for the 
people among whom I have lived for so many years, 
trusting that it will aid their intellectual and moral 
development, and be a source of pleasure and profit 
to them and their children and their children's chil- 
dren through many generations. 

22. It is my will that my executors carry on my 
banking business in the city of Galveston for such 
reasonable length of time — not exceeding twelve 
months — after my death as may enable them to wind 
up the same in a satisfactory manner. 

1:95] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my 
hand, this twenty-eighth day of May, A.D. (1892) one 
thousand eight hundred and ninety-two. [Note. — 
Date following codicil is May 31, 1892.] 

H. Rosenberg. 

Signed in the presence of the undersigned witnesses 
by Henry Rosenberg, the testator, and they, at his 
request and in his presence, sign their names hereto 
as attesting witnesses. 

E. D. Garratt. 

H. A. ElBAND. 

Note. — Personal bequest clauses of the will have 
been omitted. 



1:96: 




Major A. J. Walker 

Executor 

William J. Frederick Colonel M. F. Mott 

Executor Attorney 

THE ROSENBERG ESTATE EXECUTORS 
AND ATTORNEY 



Plate No. i6 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE 
ROSENBERG ESTATE 

It became known at once after the death of Mr. 
Rosenberg on May 1 2, 1 893, that Major A. J. Walker 
and William J. Frederich had been appointed by 
Mr. Rosenberg as his executors, and that Colonel 
M. F. Mott, Mr. Rosenberg's confidential lawyer, 
had been appointed attorney for the estate. One week 
later the executors permitted the publication of those 
clauses of the will that contain the bequests of Henry 
Rosenberg for public purposes. Mr. Rosenberg's 
generous and philanthropic nature was known, and 
it was believed that, as he had no children, the publi- 
cation of his will would disclose handsome gifts for 
charitable and educational purposes, but no guesses 
had approximated the noble liberality of these be- 
quests. The broad scope of the bequests and the wis- 
dom of the provisions of the will, as well as the very 
large total of these magnificent gifts to the public, 
caused universal surprise and moved all hearts with 
increased respect and admiration. Galveston was 
deeply impressed ; a whole city of people became one 
in gratitude to a fellow citizen who, besides bestow- 
ing large gifts during his lifetime, had bequeathed 
for public purposes in Galveston alone "not less than 
the princely sum of $520,000." The specific bequests 

1:97:] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

for public purposes in Galveston amounted to $245,- 
000, and in Bilten, Mr. Rosenberg's native village in 
Switzerland, to $80,000. The residue of the estate, 
after satisfying other bequests both private and pub- 
lic, was left to the executors in trust for the founda- 
tion and endowment of a free public library with free 
lectures and "other incidents to a great public li- 
brary." It then appeared that the residue fund for 
the Library would not be less than $275,000. 

The will was filed by the executors on July 3, 1893, 
in the County Court, Sidney S. Hanscom, Judge. At 
this time the Galveston News published a summary 
of each clause of the will including the personal be- 
quests. The will was probated and recorded on July 
17. On the same day Probate Judge Hanscom ap- 
pointed I. Lovenberg, John Adriance, and L. C. 
Woodville appraisers. The appraisers reported a 
complete inventory of the estate of Henry Rosenberg 
on August 5, and it was approved by the court and 
ordered recorded. This inventory showed: 

Real Estate $316,079 

Personal Property . . . 791,658 
Total $1,107,737 

by which it appeared that Mr. Rosenberg's estate was 
considerably larger than it was generally supposed to 
be up to the time of the publication of the will. 
About two-thirds had been bequeathed for public 
purposes, and the prospect for the Library Fund was 
now still more encouraging. 



ADMINISTRATION OF ESTATE 

In accordance with the twenty-second clause of the 
will, the executors carried on Mr. Rosenberg's bank- 
ing business without change for the account and bene- 
fit of the estate for about a year after his death, con- 
tinuing it under the name "H. Rosenberg, Banker," 
as before. The executors then transferred the busi- 
ness to a partnership composed of Mrs. Mollie R. 
Macgill Rosenberg, Theodore Ohmstede, E. D. Gar- 
ratt, and W. J. Frederich, who continued the busi- 
ness under the name of "The Rosenberg Bank." The 
banking interest was bought from this partnership by 
C. L. Beissner and J. E. Beissner in May, 1900, and 
continued without change of name. The same per- 
sons bought the building from the Rosenberg Library 
Association in August, 1907. This has been a bank 
building continuously from the time it was built by 
Henry Rosenberg and J. M. Brown in 1875. The 
bank changed ownership in June, 1913, and became 
the South Texas State Bank. 

The executors proceeded with the settlement of the 
estate by paying the legacies and executing the clauses 
of the will in the order there named, as directed by 
Mr. Rosenberg, the private bequests to the widow, 
relatives, and friends receiving first attention. The 
bequest for the Library being a residuary legacy, the 
organization of that institution was left until after 
the erection of the Orphans' Home, Grace Church, 
the Woman's Home, the Y. M. C. A,, the drinking 
fountains, and the Heroes' Monument. The Monu- 
ment to the Heroes of the Texas Revolution of 1836 

C99: 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

was unveiled with ceremonies of State-wide interest 
on April 21, 1900, the sixty-fourth anniversary of the 
battle of San Jacinto. There remained now but one 
of all the generous bequests of Galveston's noble 
benefactor, Henry Rosenberg. Under the wise and 
conscientious management of the executors, with the 
efficient aid of the attorney, the noble purposes of 
Mr. Rosenberg were being well fulfilled and the 
residuary fund was increasing. After long illness, 
Mr. Frederich died on December 14, 1898. Circum- 
stances had placed the burden of the management 
and settlement of the estate entirely upon Major 
Walker, with much devoted assistance, however, 
from Colonel Mott. None could have labored more 
faithfully or with greater singleness of purpose than 
they in the execution of Mr. Rosenberg's loving de- 
signs. Much of the spirit of the great philanthropist 
had entered into the hearts of executor and attorney, 
warm personal friends of Mr. Rosenberg, in the per- 
formance of this noble work. 

Major Walker and Colonel Mott were Mr. Rosen- 
berg's close friends and advisers for many years, and 
no doubt they were well informed regarding his 
philanthropic intentions. Major Walker was often 
the business adviser and financial agent for Mr. 
Rosenberg, for he was a man of superior financial 
ability and large business experience. Colonel Mott 
had long been Mr. Rosenberg's legal adviser and 
confidential attorney. They had been friends for 
thirty years. It was Colonel Mott who wrote the 

[100;] 



ADMINISTRATION OF ESTATE 

will, and no one can tell how much weight his coun- 
sel may have had in the mind of Mr. Rosenberg 
when he established so wisely the objects and pro- 
portions of his public benefactions, the wisdom of 
which has called forth universal admiration. Colonel 
Mott stood high among the leaders of the legal pro- 
fession of Texas and among her respected citizens. 

The erection of the Library was Major Walker's 
next labor in discharging his great trust to give to the 
people of Galveston the realization of Mr. Rosen- 
berg's munificence. In planning the library organ- 
ization. Major Walker associated with himself not 
only Colonel Mott but also Captain J. P. Alvey and 
Mr. I. Lovenberg, leading citizens of Galveston, and 
secured a charter from the State for the Rosenberg 
Library Association in July, 1900. This charter pro- 
vided for a self-perpetuating life-membership board 
of twenty trustees and, elected from their number, a 
managing board of seven directors. The persons 
chosen to constitute the original boards were named 
in the charter. The estimated value of the property 
was stated in the Charter of the Association to be 
$500,000. The Board of Directors organized on 
October 17, 1900, and in February, 1901, received 
from Major A. J. Walker, Executor of the Rosenberg 
Estate, for the Rosenberg Library, the residuum of 
the estate, which by inventory was valued at $620,- 
529.69, the great increase in the value of the estate 
under good management accruing continually to the 
benefit of the Library Fund. 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

Major Walker should be credited with faithful 
stewardship, wise and skilful management, the stern- 
est standard of honor, and the highest public spirit. 
The will provided a fee of $10,000 for his services as 
executor, no security or bond was required, and the 
only limitation upon the executors was that, to pre- 
vent the executors being "hurried by my devisees to 
the extent of requiring them to sacrifice property," 
the estate was not to be entirely settled up in less than 
two years. Major Walker believed that for the best 
interests of the public the various provisions of the 
will should not be carried out and the whole estate 
settled up in so short a time as two years. He could 
see the need of a large residuary fund, for he realized 
the great value in the life of the city of such an insti- 
tution as Mr. Rosenberg had provided for under the 
name of a "free public library." Accordingly he set 
out, in a spirit of devotion to the work, always with 
the advice and hearty cooperation of Colonel Mott, 
to manage the whole estate very carefully while the 
provisions of the will were carried out one after an- 
other. When Major Walker died on November 29, 
1904, the whole estate had been completely settled up, 
the Library had been built, the institution had been 
opened for public use the previous June, and it was 
successfully serving the public. He had devoted 
nearly all his time, even though a poor man, during 
the last twelve years of his life to the management of 
the Rosenberg Estate, and he now saw a splendid 
public library for Galveston with total assets con- 

D02] 



ADMINISTRATION OF ESTATE 

servatively valued at nearly $800,000. Although a 
prominent citizen and a man whose financial advice 
was everywhere sought and whose business judgment 
and integrity were everywhere trusted, Major Walker 
was the most unostentatious of men. Certainly there 
has very rarely been recorded a more remarkable in- 
stance of quiet efficiency and devoted public service 
in the management of a great trust. 



1^032 




O 

X 

In 

z 
< 

X 

o 
o 

h 

CD 

> 

< 

O 

w 

h 



o 

2:; 



THE GALVESTON ORPHANS' HOME 

The first bequest for a public purpose named in Mr. 
Rosenberg's will is contained in the fourteenth clause. 
This clause gives to the Galveston Orphans' Home 
$30,000 for a building. With the approval of the 
executors, the trustees erected a fine new building of 
cream-colored pressed brick, with a frontage of 104 
feet and an extreme width of 94 feet, on the block of 
ground then owned by the Home on 21st Street, ex- 
tending from Avenue M to M^, after first moving 
the old buildings off. Mr. I. Lovenberg was chair- 
man of the building committee, Alfred Muller was 
architect, and Thomas Lucas was contractor. The 
corner-stone was laid with Masonic ceremony on 
October 20, 1894. Mr. W. T. Armstrong was the 
orator of the day. The dedicatory exercises were 
held at the Home on the 15th of November, 1895, 
Mr. Leo N. Levi being the orator of the evening. 
This last act in the fulfilment of Mr. Rosenberg's first 
public bequest was made a very important occasion 
and a great crowd of citizens was present to honor 
the memory of the donor. 

The Galveston Orphans' Home had its beginning 
in October, 1878, with the efforts of Mr. George 
Sealy and Mrs. E. M. Arnold. In 1879 there were 
about twenty inmates of the Home. A Board of Di- 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

rectors was then organized with Judge C. L. Cleve- 
land as President and J. S. Montgomery as Secretary 
and Treasurer. In 1880 a charter was obtained and 
Moritz Kopperl was made President; George Sealy, 
Treasurer; and J. S. Montgomery, Secretary. In 
1 88 1 about $7000 was raised by donations for a build- 
ing fund. With this sum the Bolton place (the per- 
manent site of the Home) was bought and additions 
and alterations made to make the house suitable for 
the Home. Three more lots adjoining were bought 
in 1889, which gave the Home the ownership of the 
entire block. After the death of Mr. Kopperl in 
1883, Judge Cleveland became President and Henry 
Rosenberg Vice-President. Judge Cleveland died in 
February, 1892, and Mr. Rosenberg became Presi- 
dent, holding that office until his death. Mr. Rosen- 
berg had been a generous and regular contributor 
towards the support of the Home from the first, and 
a trustee since July, 1883. 

To replace the storm-damaged building, a new 
building of St. Louis pressed granite brick was 
erected on the same site in 1901 with floor plans simi- 
lar to the old. The architect was George B. Stowe, 
and the builder, Harry Devlin. The building was 
dedicated on March 30, 1902, Mr. M. H. Royston 
delivering the dedicatory address. At the time of the 
dedication I. Lovenberg was President of the Board 
of Trustees, John Sealy, Treasurer, and J. S. Mont- 
gomery, Secretary. Mrs. H. A. Landes was Presi- 
dent of the Board of Lady Managers, a position 



GALVESTON ORPHANS' HOME 

which she had held for many years. On the twenty- 
third anniversary of the Home, November 21, 1893, 
following an address by Mr. Edward F. Harris, 
there was unveiled a fine bronze tablet as a memorial 
to Mr. Rosenberg, the donor of the building. In the 
centre of the tablet, in relief, is a good portrait of 
Mr. Rosenberg in bronze. The Home receives part 
of its support from interest on a small endowment 
fund of about $20,000 derived from several bequests 
and donations. Otherwise its support comes from 
voluntary contributions by Galveston people. 



[107] 




INTERIOR VIEW OF GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH 



Plate Xo. 19 



GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH 

The fifteenth clause of Mr. Rosenberg's will contains 
his second public bequest. By this clause he gives 
$30,000 "to Grace Church Parish in the city of Gal- 
veston to be used for building a church." With this 
sum a beautiful Gothic church edifice of limestone 
(Leon whitestone) was erected on the quarter block 
owned by the Church at Avenue L and 36th Street, the 
old wood building having been moved back to make 
a place for the new. The church, with its heavy 
buttresses and massive tower with corbeled battle- 
ments, is in all its parts in dignified form and pleasing 
proportions. The edifice has a length of 109 feet, a 
width of 50 feet, and an extreme width, including the 
tower, of 78 feet. N. J. Clayton & Co. were the archi- 
tects, and Thomas Darragh was the contractor. The 
consulting architect and designer of the interior fur- 
nishings and the memorial windows was Silas Mc- 
Bee, of the University of the South, Sewanee, Ten- 
nessee, afterw^ard editor of the Churchtnan. On 
December 23, 1894, the corner-stone was laid with im- 
posing religious ceremony by Right Rev. George H. 
Kinsolving, D.D., Bishop of Texas, assisted by Rev. 
J. R. Carter, Rector of Grace Church, and others. 
The church edifice was consecrated with the Episco- 
pal ritual on November 17, 1895, by Bishop Kinsol- 

[109] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

ving, assisted by Right Rev. David Sessums, Bishop 
of Louisiana, once the Rector of Grace Church, and 
Rev. J. R. Carter. The sermon was given by Bishop 
Sessums. 

The interior furnishings of Grace Church are of 
excellent design, simple and very beautiful. Perfect 
honesty in material and workmanship were insisted 
upon. What is oak in appearance is real oak, the 
carving is of the best workmanship, the bronze is the 
best bronze to be obtained. No sham was tolerated; 
everything is exactly what it appears to be. Mrs. 
Mollie Ragan Macgill Rosenberg gave about $20,000 
toward the interior furnishings and the windows of 
the church. The reredos or altar-piece, which was 
described at the time of the consecration of the 
church as "probably the richest that has ever been put 
into any church in the South," Mrs. Rosenberg made 
a memorial to her husband. The lectern is a me- 
morial to Mrs. Letitia Cooper Rosenberg. A south 
window is a memorial to Mr. Rosenberg's parents 
and has this inscription: "In loving memory of the 
parents of Henry Rosenberg: Rudolf Rosenberg, 
born October 17, 1798, died July 19, 1862, in Bilten, 
Canton Glarus, Switzerland; Waldburg Rosenberg, 
born October 3, 1798, died February 18, 1856, in Bil- 
ten, Canton Glarus, Switzerland." Other memorial 
gifts by Mrs. Rosenberg were the bronze pulpit, the 
bishop's chair, the clergy stall and other chancel fur- 
niture, the chancel windows, and two windows on the 
north side of the church. (Rich and beautiful me- 

[no] 



GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH 

morials of a similar character, designed by the same 
artist, Mr. Silas McBee, were in April, 1899, donated 
by Mrs. Rosenberg to St. John's Episcopal Church 
in her native village, Hagerstown, Maryland.) The 
Grace Church organ is a memorial to Mr. Rosenberg 
by the congregation of Grace Church and friends. 
Through the efforts of Rev. S. M. Bird, D.D., Rec- 
tor of Trinity Church, a Sunday school was started 
in the western part of the city in 1874. As this re- 
ligious enterprise grew, $2700 was raised to buy a 
quarter block of ground (the present site of Grace 
Church), and $3100 to erect a chapel. The Bishop 
then assigned Rev. Jeremiah Ward to take charge, 
and the mission was called Trinity Chapel. In 1876 
the organization became Grace Church Parish, with 
the Rev. Mr. Ward as Rector. Mr. Rosenberg be- 
came connected with Grace Church about 1883 or 
1884. The church continued to grow and at the time 
the new church edifice was consecrated there were 
220 communicants. 



[I'O 



(( ^ 



^. 




I— ( 

C 

X 



z 
< 

o 
> 

a 

w 

z 

w 

c 
< 

w 

w 
d: 



o 



THE LETITIA ROSENBERG 
WOMAN'S HOME 

Mr. Rosenberg's will provided $30,000 "to procure 
and furnish an appropriate building for the Woman's 
Home of Galveston," and charged the "executors 
with the duty of executing this bequest." A site was 
bought at Rosenberg Avenue and Avenue O^A, and 
a fine building, Sox 120 feet, with 30 rooms, was 
erected in 1895. The architect was Alfred Muller, 
and the builder, Harry Devlin. The corner-stone 
was laid on April 9, 1895, the address being given by 
Major F. Charles Hume. The formal dedication of 
the Home occurred on January 22, 1896. Colonel 
M. F. Mott delivered the principal address, in which 
he gave a brief history of the institution, and for the 
executors of the Rosenberg Estate presented the deed 
of the property to Mr. Charles Fowler, president of 
the new corporation, "The Woman's Home." Mr. 
Fowler responded and then presented the keys of the 
building to Mrs. George P. Finlay, President of the 
Board of Lady Managers. 

The movement for a Galveston home for women 
originated with some charitable ladies in the year 

1888. An organization was formed in the spring of 

1889, with Mrs. George P. Finlay as president, and 
a house at 3 1 st Street and Avenue I was rented at $25 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

a month. Small gifts from many who were interested 
in the project supplied furniture for the house and 
support for the Home. Mrs. Gray was the first ma- 
tron, and she was succeeded by Miss Minnie Gray. 
A home was thus provided for twenty-three women 
the first year. At the time the new building was dedi- 
cated there were thirteen women in the Home. Mrs. 
Finlay continued President of the Board of Lady 
Managers from the beginning until 191 5. 



D14D 




o 

< 

u 

o 

C/2 
CD 

< 

< 

H 

5 

CO 

w 

a 

o 
>^ 

o 

H 

W 
L> 

< 

O 

w 



o 



< 

CL, 




Y. M. C. A. OFFICE AND RECEPTION ROOM 




Y. M. C. A. GYMNASIUM 



Plate No. 22 



THE GALVESTON YOUNG MEN'S 
CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 

The eighteenth clause of Mr. Rosenberg's will gave 
$65,000 "for the purchase (or erection) of a suitable 
building for the use of the Young Men's Christian 
Association of Galveston," including "cost of the 
ground," and the "executors are charged with the 
execution of this bequest." A site was bought in 
August, 1894, ^t the southwest corner of Tremont 
Street and Avenue G, for $17,500. The small build- 
ings on the site were sold and removed. The archi- 
tectural plans of Charles W. Bulger, of Galveston, 
were accepted in June, 1895. These plans were modi- 
fied later to reduce the cost of the building to about 
$47,000, and the contract was let to Lawrence 
Brothers & Mason. 

The corner-stone was laid on March 10, 1896, by 
the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Texas, Ancient 
Free and Accepted Masons. B. R. Abernethy of 
Gonzales acted as Grand Master; M. F. Mott, as 
Deputy Grand Master; Rev. A. C. Garrett, D.D., of 
Dallas, Bishop of North Texas, as Grand Chaplain; 
and Rev. J. R. Carter, as Grand Orator. A brief 
address by Bishop Garrett was especially eloquent 
and impressive. Frank B. Nichols was then Presi- 
dent of the Association. At the annual meeting on 

D153 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

February 7, 1897, held at St. John's Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, Broadway and Rosenberg Avenue, a 
full report of the work of the Galveston Y. M. C. A. 
was presented, with the explanation that a fund of at 
least $10,000 was needed for furniture and equipment 
for the new building provided for by Mr. Rosenberg. 
A little later about $12,000 was donated for this pur- 
pose by three friends of the Association and its mem- 
bers, and the furnishing of the building was com- 
pleted in 1899. 

The formal dedication occurred on January i, 
1898, seven months after the occupation of the build- 
ing for the regular work of the Association. Major 
A. J. Walker, Executor of the Rosenberg Estate, pre- 
sented the property to the Y. M. C. A. Board of 
Directors, closing with these words: "In delivering 
to you now the deeds of conveyance for this structure 
and the site which it occupies, I feel that I cannot 
too strongly impress upon you that the duty and obli- 
gation will now devolve upon you and your succes- 
sors of demonstrating the wisdom of the kindly im- 
pulse which has prompted this generous benefaction." 
Mr. C. F. W. Felt, President of the Association, re- 
sponded for the Board of Directors, saying in part: 
"In accepting this beautiful home the officers and 
membership pledge themselves to use it to its fullest 
capacity as an instrument for the physical, intellec- 
tual, and spiritual welfare of the young men of Gal- 
veston. . . . We will do our utmost to use this great 
gift so that it will forever honor the name of Rosen- 

C116] 



GALVESTON Y. M. C. A. 

berg." Resolutions of gratitude and appreciation 
previously adopted by the Board of Directors were 
presented by Secretary Palmer. Rabbi Henry Cohen 
and Major F. Charles Hume made addresses. Mr. 
Jens Moller closed his remarks with a surprise by 
presenting a paper on which were the pledges of ten 
persons for $ioo each for the educational work of the 
Association. Several months previous to this time, 
Mrs. Rosenberg had presented to the Association a 
fine portrait (an enlarged photograph) of Mr. 
Rosenberg. It was at the Y. M. C. A. that the term 
"Our Benefactor" was first applied to Mr. Rosen- 
berg. This inscription was framed and hung just 
below his portrait. The officers of the Association at 
this time were: C. F. W. Felt, President; James S. 
Brown, Vice-President; Fred W. Fickett, Recording 
Secretary; J. T. Huffmaster, Treasurer; Rev. Judson 
B. Palmer, General Secretary; Harvey L. Smith, 
Physical Director; and C. W. Varnum, Assistant 
Secretary. 

This was the fourth building Mr. Rosenberg had 
provided for among his public bequests, and it repre- 
sents the largest of these bequests, with the exception 
of the Public Library. This building was the first 
Y. M. C. A. building erected in Texas, and it is still 
one of the largest. It has 120 feet frontage on Tre- 
mont Street, its depth is 84 feet, and it is four stories 
in height. The first story is of limestone, and the 
stories above of buff pressed brick with red terra-cotta 
trimming. The first floor, fronting on Tremont 

ci'7n 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

Street, is used for stores. On the second floor are the 
offices and reception and game rooms, and, entered 
from this floor, there are the gymnasium, and the 
auditorium and lecture room with a seating capacity 
of 850. On the other floors are the reading rooms 
and library, class rooms, parlor, and other rooms. 

The beginning of the Young Men's Christian 
Association in Galveston was on the fifteenth of 
April, 1859, only fifteen years after the founding of 
the Association in London, England, in June, 1844, 
and less than eight years after the organization of the 
first Association in the United States in Boston. The 
Galveston Association had rooms on the second floor 
in the Pix building (now the Tribune building), on 
the northeast corner of Post-office and 22d Streets. 
James Sorley was President; M. F. Mott, Vice-Presi- 
dent; George H. Traube, Treasurer; and Clinton G. 
Wells, Secretary. This organization seems to have 
lapsed before 1866. Another association was organ- 
ized on the 2d of April, 1874, with George M. Courts 
as President. Rooms were established at 2 121 Post- 
office Street. One or two years later new quarters 
were rented from Henry Rosenberg at 21 17 Market 
Street. In April, 1876, George M. Steirer became 
President; George E. Clothier, Treasurer; Rev. J. C. 
Kopp and E. Stavenhagen, Secretaries ; and these, 
with H. B. Goodman, J. T. Hufifmaster, and others, 
constituted the Executive Committee. In March, 
1878, rooms were rented on the west side of Tremont 
Street, between Market and Mechanic Streets, with 

C"8] 



GALVESTON Y. M. C. A. 

George E. Clothier as paid General Secretary. All 
service to the Association had been rendered free up 
to this time. After four or five months, however, all 
the work of the Association was suspended because of 
lack of support, and no active organization existed 
for six years. 

The present Galveston Y. M. C. A. was organ- 
ized on May 23, 1884. H. Lee Sellers was chosen 
President, Thomas Conyngton becoming Secretary a 
little later. In January, 1885, rooms were occupied 
on the west side of 22d Street, two doors north of 
Market Street, in the Alvey building. The rooms 
were kept open from 9 A.M. to 9 P.M. Among the 
volunteers for evening service were Charles R. 
Brown, J. M. Fendley, E. G. Littlejohn, H. Lee 
Sellers, George E. Clothier, F. D. Minor, C. P. 
Marye, H. R. Conyngton, Thomas Conyngton, and 
Robert Burney, Jr. In October, 1885, the Associ- 
ation moved to the southeast corner of 22d and 
Mechanic Streets, occupying two large rooms on the 
second floor for reading rooms and the entire third 
floor for a gymnasium. The membership at this time 
was one hundred. 

In order to provide for the employment of a 
trained General Secretary a guarantee fund was 
raised by subscription early in 1886. Henry Rosen- 
berg, W. L. Moody, R. S. Willis, W. H. Willis, J. H. 
Hutchings, William Lofland, John D. Rogers, J. S. 
Rogers, George Sealy, J. N. Sawyer, James Moore, 
W. P. Ballinger, Leon Blum, and M. C. McLemore 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

were subscribers to this fund at five dollars a month. 
Butler Jack, of Memphis, Tenn., served as General 
Secretary from March to September. At this time 
there was a membership of about two hundred and 
fifty. 

On May 24, 1886, the Ladies' Auxiliary to the 
Association was organized with twenty-five members. 
Mrs. Lavinia P. Minor was President; Mrs. John 
Sealy, Vice-President; and Miss Rebecca Harris, 
Secretary and Treasurer. The Auxiliary has contin- 
ued in active service ever since its organization. On 
November i. Rev. Judson B. Palmer became General 
Secretary, a position which he occupied continuously 
(except for nearly a year in 1898 and 1899, when he 
was Y. M. C. A. State Secretary for Texas) until the 
end of the year 191 2, when he was made General Sec- 
retary Emeritus and still continues to perform regu- 
lar duties in connection with the Association. 

On May 3, 1888, the Association was incorporated, 
with thirteen Directors, as follows: H. Lee Sellers, 
George Sealy, J. M. Fendley, J. T. Huffmaster, 
H. R. Conyngton, Frank M. Ball, C. P. Marye, 
Charles R. Brown, C. L. Dealey, John Hanna, W. S. 
Grifiin, J. P. Boone, and James Moore. The charter 
states that "This corporation is formed for the pur- 
pose of improving the spiritual, mental, social, and 
physical condition of young men." It came to be 
realized that there must be a trained and competent 
head for the physical department, and another per- 
manent feature was inaugurated when J. C. Elsom, 

C1203 



GALVESTON Y. M. C. A. 

M.D., became the first Physical Director in Septem- 
ber, 1889. Daniel Cole followed. In March, 1892, 
the Association moved into more commodious quar- 
ters at 2203 Post-office Street, having rooms on the 
second and third floors. In August, 1893, Harvey L. 
Smith, a graduate of the Springfield (Mass.) Train- 
ing School, became the third Physical Director, serv- 
ing the Association very acceptably for about seven 
years, until the end of April, 1900. Mr. A. S. Hopper 
was the first Assistant Secretary, serving the Associ- 
ation from April, 1895, to July, 1897. In May, 1896, 
the Association, being obliged to move, occupied 
temporary and quite inadequate quarters pending the 
completion of the new building, which by contract 
was to be ready on July i, 1896. After long delay, 
the Association occupied the new building on June 
8, 1897, the builders' work still going on for several 
months after that. 

The fine new building resulting from Mr. Rosen- 
berg's generosity greatly increased the Association's 
opportunity for service, and there was a correspond- 
ing increase in work and membership. In May, 1913, 
Mr. Charles C. Adams donated to the Association the 
lot, 120x43 feet, next west of the present building, 
and Mrs. J. C. League has donated $10,000. Thus 
a start has been made toward a much needed enlarge- 
ment of the building. The present officers of the 
Association are: William T. Armstrong, President; 
Fred W. Catterall, Vice-President; E. R. Cheesbor- 
ough, Recording Secretary; Milton S. Schwab, 

1:121] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 



Treasurer; Rev. Judson B. Palmer, General Secre- 
tary Emeritus; L. C. Hardie, General Secretary; 
Charles C. Hard, Physical Director. 

The Galveston Y. M. C. A. has been a permanent 
organization for a third of a century. Willing and 
loyal voluntary workers have always been ready to 
share in its responsibilities and duties and to labor 
earnestly to help it to meet its opportunities, many of 
these citizens being very busy men and prominent in 
Galveston business life. Among those who have given 
long service on the Board of Directors are: 



H. Lee Sellers . 
James M. Fendley 
J. T. Huffmaster 
Fred W. Fickett 
James S. Brown 
Frank B. Nichols 
William C. Ogilvy 
H. B. Goodman 
W. T. Armstrong 
Valery E. Austin 
Maco Stewart . 
E. R. Cheesborough 
C. F. W. Felt . 
Dr. John T. Moore 
Dr. J. J. Terrill 
John R. Hedges 
Fred W. Catterall 
Milton S. Schwab 



884-1892 

886- 

887-1907 

889-1901 

89CH-1905 

891-1904 

892-1912 

892- 

892- 

893- 

894- 

89s- 

897-1909 

898-1909 

904-1913 

905-1913 

906- 

911- 



C122;] 




'""'" ^ rfii -"""'- -"" 




THE ROSENBERG DRINKING FOUNTAINS 



Plate No. 23 a 




C/2 

z 

t—l 

< 

h 
Z 

O 

o 
z 

z 

Q 

O 

w 
pq 
Z 

o 

X 

H 



o 



Eh 
< 



THE ROSENBERG DRINKING 
FOUNTAINS 

The will of Mr. Rosenberg provided $30,000 "for 
the erection of not less than ten drinking fountains 
for man and beast in various portions of the city of 
Galveston." Seventeen fountains were erected by the 
executors. Twelve were placed in March, 1898, one 
in each of the twelve wards of the city. Five larger 
and more costly fountains were erected in October, 
1898. Sherman Park, Central Park, and Morris 
Lasker Park each have one of these larger fountains; 
the two others were placed in large, open public 
spaces, one near the Union Railway Station and the 
other on 20th Street, a block north of the old City 
Hall. The fountains were designed by J. Massey 
Rhind, of New York. The material is light gray 
granite ornamented with bronze. Each fountain 
bears the inscription: "Gift of Henry Rosenberg." 



D23II 



'■"*? "*' "^3 ? y'?^ f!^'**^- ^''ffl*'" * ^"' ' ^." '' * JjS i jM^jfe' ^ 




HEROES' MONUMENT 

A Tribute from HenrN' Rosenberg to the Heroes of the 
Texas Revolution of 1836 



Plate No. 24 







> 
z 

D 

O 

>-' 
< 
Q 

w 

H 
Z 

o 

h 
z 

w 

o 
z 

o 



C/2 

w 

o 
Pi 
w 

X 
h 



o 
Z 








o 



< 

H-) 




72 




CO 


H 


t:; 


Z 


o 


w 


'A 


S 


o 


P 




iz; 


o 


o 


tZ 


krH 


' — i 


r^ 


2 


„ 


rt 


CO 


CO 


W 


t: 


O 


^ 


Pi 


3 


w 


■J-; 


:i2 


D 








7^ 


h 


IJ 


fn 




O 


\^ 




o 


CO 




J 


1 


:z; 


< 


< 


_^ 


Ph 


+J 




s 


w 


CO 


N 




Z 


"o 


o 


OJ 


pli 


-^ 


P3 






l-l 


w 


3 


:[: 


CO 


H 



o 

< 



THE TEXAS HEROES' MONUMENT 

By bequest, Mr. Rosenberg provided $50,000 "for 
the erection of an appropriate monument in the city 
of Galveston to the memory of the heroes of the Texas 
revolution of 1836." The result is the noble Heroes' 
Monument of granite and bronze centrally located 
at Broadway and Rosenberg Avenue, the widest 
streets in Galveston. It rises seventy-two feet high 
and is thirty-four feet square at the base. The story 
of the Texas struggle for independence is told by 
means of bronze panels and bronze figures about the 
granite base. A bronze figure of Victory, twenty-two 
feet high, surmounts the granite column. The sculp- 
tor was Louis Amateis, of Washington, D. C. The 
bronze figures were all cast in Rome, Italy, the larger 
ones by Bruno & Co., the smaller ones and the panels 
by Nelli & Co. The granite portion is the work of 
J. F. Manning & Co., monumental architects, Wash- 
ington, D. C. The granite is from Concord, N. H., 
and is like that used in the Library of Congress. The 
monument is efifectively placed at the intersection of 
Broadway and Rosenberg Avenue (the name of 25th 
Street since March, 1898, when it was changed by a 
city ordinance in honor of the city's benefactor). 
Looking down either street from the monument, one 
sees a beautiful avenue of palms and oleanders. 
Although San Jacinto Day, the twenty-first of 

[■25] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

April, had been celebrated for many years as a Texas 
holiday, the sixty-fourth anniversary celebration in 
Galveston in 1900 had special significance on account 
of the unveiling of the Texas Heroes' Monument. 
The following invitation had been sent throughout 
the state by 

Sidney Sherman Chapter 
Daughters of the Republic of Texas 

On San Jacinto Day, April 21, 1900, the Monument will 
be unveiled which was presented by the great philan- 
thropist, Henry Rosenberg, to the State of Texas, a 
memorial to the Heroes of the Texas Revolution. This 
Monument is the result of a bequest of fifty thousand dol- 
lars, left by Mr. Rosenberg for this purpose, the execution 
of which has been under the wise direction of his executor. 
Major A. J. Walker, of Galveston, who has done so much 
toward the successful realization of Mr. Rosenberg's 
charities and benefactions to the City of Galveston. The 
bronze statuary for the completion of this splendid testi- 
monial to the valor, honor, courage and patriotism of the 
founders and defenders of the Republic of Texas was all 
cast in Rome, and was designed by Prof. Amateis, of 
Washington, D. C, one of the noted sculptors of this 
country. In his symbolic design he has achieved a success 
that is satisfying and gratifying to every patriotic Texan, 
and it is the earnest desire of the citizens of Galveston 
and of Sidney Sherman Chapter, Daughters of the Repub- 
lic of Texas, that the people of Texas will come to Galves- 
ton at that time to pay homage to this great occasion In 
the history of our State. 

i:i26D 



TEXAS HEROES' MONUMENT 

Offices of the United States, State, county, and city, 
and the courts were closed, also the banks and many 
mercantile houses and business offices. An interest- 
ing exhibit of Texas historical relics was shown in the 
large corner show-window of Garbadc, Eiband & 
Co., dry-goods merchants, and attracted much atten- 
tion. A large procession of about 2500 school chil- 
dren carrying flags and flowers, and a very large 
flower, military, and civic parade, were features of 
the celebration. The monument was unveiled with 
appropriate ceremonies in the presence of a gather- 
ing of perhaps 10,000 people from Galveston and all 
Texas. Colonel M. F. Mott introduced the speakers. 
In honor of the Governor's presence on the occasion, 
a governor's salute of seventeen guns was fired by 
Battery G, First United States Artillery, as the pro- 
gram was brought to a close. 

PROGRAM 

OF THE UNVEILING CEREMONIES OF THE ROSENBERG 
MONUMENT TO TEXAS HEROES, 
APRIL 21, 1900, 4 P.M. 

Prayer Rev. J. R. Carter 

Chorus— "Texas, Texas, Texas Forevermore" 

Children of the Public Schools 
Address— Presentation of the Monument to the 
State of Texas, on Behalf of Major A. J. 
Walker, Executor of the Estate of Henry 
Rosenberg Hon. M. E. Kleberg 

[1273 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

Unveiling Monument . Miss Mollie Macgill Bridges 

Presentation of the Sculptor, Louis 
Amateis Col. M. F. Mott 

Address— Acceptance of the Monument for the 

State of Texas . Joseph D. Sayers, Governor of Texas 

Chorus— "Texas is the Land for Me," and 
"Away Down South in Texas," to the tune 
of "Dixie" . . . . Children of the Public Schools 

Address— "Significance of the Monument to 

the Youth of Texas" .... Clay Stone Briggs 

Oration — Acceptance of the Monument on 
Behalf of the Heroes of the Texas Revolu- 
tion and Their Descendants . Hon. J. C. Hutcheson 

Ode- "The Texas Star," by Mabel Place 
Smith, dedicated to Texas Heroes — Past, 
Present and Future . Read by W . T. Armstrong 

Chorus — "America" . Children of the Public Schools 

Benediction Rev. J. R. Carter 

salute 



CizS] 




THE HEROES' MONUMENT 

Views from the East 



Plate No. 28 





THE HEROES' MONUMENT 
Views from the West 



Plate No. 29 



THE TEXAS HEROES' MONUMENT 

{From the Galveston News of November 2, iQij) 

Rising in silent majesty from a Galveston esplanade 
of spreading palms, blossom-laden oleanders, and 
close-cropped grass, a great bronze figure looks stead- 
fastly to the north, out over the plains of Texas. One 
hand rests upon the hilt of a battle sword whose blade 
is twined with roses. The other extends the crown of 
laurel won when the crimson of the sword blade was 
that of blood — not rose petals. It is a Texas of roar- 
ing cities, of busy towns, of crop-bearing fields that 
now meets the gaze of the tranquil bronze face, look- 
ing over a harbor filled with ocean liners, across the 
coast country truck gardens, past the mid-State fields 
of cotton, to the horizon-bounded plains where cattle 
graze. It is a State far removed from the Texas of 
those turbulent times when the Lone Star now crown- 
ing the great bronze Victory first rose, half obscured 
by powder smoke and human blood. The steel rails 
that now draw together at the horizon's rim were 
then the trails of the pioneers. The smoke from the 
factory chimneys of Dallas and Fort Worth was then 
the smoke of burning cabins. And the granite base 
that bears aloft the bronze Victory bears also the 
names and faces of the men who wrought from that 
blood-stained wilderness the foundations of Texas 

1:129] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

to-day — men whose names shall last even longer than 
lasts the granite and the bronze. 

April 21, 1836, the battle of San Jacinto was fought 
within twenty-five miles of the spot where the bronze 
Victory now rears its head. Out of the turmoil of 
one memorable charge rose the republic of Texas. 
Seven years later there came to Galveston a boy who 
had emigrated from his home in Switzerland. The 
fights and names that are history now were almost 
news then. Sam Houston, "Deaf" Smith, Davy 
Crockett, Travis, Fannin, De Zavala, Goliad, San 
Jacinto, the Alamo, were something more than names 
to be memorized laboriously by school children ; some- 
thing more than the objective points for week-end 
excursions at reduced fares. All Texas yet thrilled 
with the sense of freedom dearly bought, and into the 
midst of it came Henry Rosenberg. Men there are 
in Texas whose fathers fought in the battles for relief 
from Mexican domination. Men there are in Texas 
whose wealth far exceeds that of the great Galveston 
philanthropist. But it remained for the Swiss boy 
who came to the young republic, and who made 
Texas his home for the many years during which he 
lived and worked, to rear one of the most magnificent 
and beautiful of monuments to commemorate that 
fighting spirit for which during his life he never 
lacked outspoken tribute, and which at his death he 
sought to place vividly before the eyes of future gen- 
erations. 

Fifty simple words did it. Arithmetically they 



TEXAS HEROES' MONUMENT 

were worth $1000 a word. Inspirationally their 
value is incalculable. Legally they are known as 
"Clause 19" of the noted Henry Rosenberg will. And 
these were the words: 

'T give $50,000 for the erection of an appropriate 
monument in the city of Galveston to the memory of 
the heroes of the Texas revolution of 1836. The 
execution of this bequest is charged upon my execu- 
tors, who will adopt plans and have the monument 
erected under their immediate supervision." 

Simple words these, by a straightforward business 
man whose confidence in his associates left the details 
in their hands. And in truth the man whose spirit is 
touched at the magnificent memorial towering up at 
the juncture of Broadway and Rosenberg Avenue 
owes much to the fidelity to their trust of Major A. J. 
Walker and W. J. Frederich, the executors. For no 
small amount of praise redounds to those men under 
whose "immediate supervision" was launched the 
work that resulted in the shaft whose broad granite 
base now bears, deep carven, the words, "A Tribute 
from Henry Rosenberg to the Heroes of the Texas 
Revolution of 1836." It is a tribute worthy of the 
cause to which it is dedicated. It is a tribute unique 
in the history of monuments built to commemorate 
the heroic deeds of mankind. ,It is a tribute that in 
its clean-cut eloquence and wonderfully adequate 
simplicity would have won the approval of the man 
who did not wish to have one source of his inspira- 
tion die with him. 

C131] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

Sixty-four years after Sam Houston's charge at 
San Jacinto, all Galveston gathered for the dedica- 
tion ceremonies when the Texas Heroes' Monument 
was unveiled. It was San Jacinto Day — April 21, 
1900 — when this one of Henry Rosenberg's many 
gifts to Galveston was given into the hands of the 
people. A gorgeous parade of flower-decked floats, 
speeches from widely known orators in Texas, an 
audience ranging from the oldest who were able to 
attend to the ranks of assembled school children, 
formed the program of the dedication day. From all 
parts of the State came noted Texans; from other 
States came distinguished guests. It was a day of 
elaborate ceremony, of many words. 

The flowers that adorned floats and carriages were 
withered thirteen years ago. The speeches that were 
greeted with bursts of applause are now buried in 
yellowed scrap-books and in the files of the News. 
The company that assembled in Galveston will never 
convene again. But out of the mass of words, con- 
gratulatory and eulogistic, there yet stand the four, 
engraved deeply in the massive stone on which the 
feet of the bronze Victory rest. They bear simply 
and clearly to all who pass the thoughts that moved 
Henry Rosenberg to give lasting expression to his 
admiration for the qualities on which, as a founda- 
tion four-square, the republic of Texas rose, a nation 
among the nations of the world. 



C132;] 



TEXAS HEROES' MONUMENT 



Patriotism. Honor. Devotion. Courage. 

Words to conjure with are these! And while the 
bronze Victory stands in place they will carry their 
message from the granite entablature that surmounts 
the four great columns of the monument. They rep- 
resent the qualities in early Texas history that Henry 
Rosenberg found worth while — sufficiently worth 
while to endeavor to impress upon those who came 
after him. 

Great as was the message the monument was des- 
tined to carry, equally great is the tremendous sim- 
plicity with which the task is performed. Few are 
the memorials that as completely and beautifully tell 
the story of so epic a series of events as were painted 
on the historical canvas by the men who fought Mex- 
ico in the early '30s. It is virtually unknown for one 
monument, without a hopelessly involved mass of de- 
tail, to represent an entire range of events covering 
a struggle so noteworthy. Yet the Texas Heroes' 
Monument with stark realism and simple symbolism 
portrays the struggle of the Texas colonists in a man- 
ner to stir the most sluggish blood. Through sheer 
familiarity with the bronze and granite masterpiece, 
the uncommon attributes of the work have faded from 
the minds of many Galvestonians. Yet it is interest- 
ing to witness the tribute which the heroic design 
draws from the hundreds of strangers visiting in the 
city. In groups small and large, with note-books, 

[1333 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

sketch-books and cameras, they are to be seen about 
the broad base of the monument day by day, studying 
the bronze panels intently or stepping back to take in 
admiringly the complete view of the great work. 

It is in these bronze panels that in high relief is 
shown the series of the Texas revolution's most stir- 
ring events. The defense of the Alamo, the massacre 
at Goliad, the charge of Sam Houston's troops that 
won the battle of San Jacinto, and Santa Anna before 
General Houston at San Jacinto are scenes that it is 
no mean task to present in bas-relief on bronze panels 
nine feet long and three feet wide. Yet in those four 
panels they have been presented with an artistry that 
equals the tense battle canvases of Jean Baptiste 
Detaille. 

The defense of the Alamo is shown at the moment 
the attacking Mexican column has broken its way 
through the shattered door of the bullet-pitted mis- 
sion. Through the splinter-strewn gateway the sol- 
diers of Santa Anna are rushing, the handful of 
wounded and exhausted Texans engaging them hand 
to hand. Some of the gallant group, notwithstanding 
the entry of the Mexicans, still hold their posts at the 
windows, firing into the thick of the ranks outside, 
where their last few bullets will do the greatest execu- 
tion. Bowie lies wounded on a couch in a corner, 
braced on one elbow, weapon in hand, to meet the 
last onslaught. About him crouch three women, one 
holding a baby close to her breast. 

The massacre at Goliad is a scene equally vivid. 



TEXAS HEROES' MONUMENT 

The Texas prisoners, promised the honors of war be- 
fore they surrendered, were marched out of the town 
between two columns of Mexican soldiers. Their 
freedom had been promised if they gave up their 
arms. The sculptor has shown the moment when one 
of the Mexican columns fell back and Santa Anna's 
troops poured a volley of lead into the group of un- 
armed Texans. One broad-shouldered Texan stands 
out in the foreground, every line of his tautened 
muscles radiating the contempt he is hurling at the 
Mexican troops. 

No less magnificent in conception and execution is 
the panel of the battle of San Jacinto, The charge of 
Sam Houston's fighters, the climax of the historic 
struggle, is shown with a prodigality of detail that is 
tense in action. Leading his men is General Houston 
on horseback, waving his hat at the moment he has 
shouted back: "Hold your damned fire!" With the 
concentrated ferocity inspired by the battle-cry of 
"Remember the Alamo!" the Texans are leaping the 
trenches and sweeping like a death-laden hurricane 
upon the Mexican ranks. In the foreground Deaf 
Smith, his horse shot beneath him, is rushing forward 
with pistol leveled at a Mexican officer. Just behind 
Sam Houston, General Sherman is leading the Texas 
cavalry. Swept from their feet by the furious charge, 
the Mexicans are at the point of breaking ranks and 
fleeing in disorganized retreat. 

Last of the series, the fourth panel depicts the scene 
after the surrender, with Santa Anna before General 

[135;] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

Houston at San Jacinto. The scene has been made 
familiar by many prints. General Houston, wounded 
and surrounded by his men, is reclining beneath the 
live-oak tree. Santa Anna, disguised as a common 
Mexican soldier, is being led forward toward the 
blanket on which the future President of the Repub- 
lic of Texas rests. Wonderfully the sculptor has 
caught the spirit of the moment. 

Crowning the four granite columns is the twenty- 
two-foot cast bronze figure of Victory, at the time of 
its casting the second largest bronze figure in Amer- 
ica. The largest was the William Penn statue in 
Philadelphia. Crowned with the Lone Star, the 
figure rests the point of the great cross-hilted sword 
upon the earth at its feet. Roses twine about the 
blade, and the laurel wreath for the victors is ex- 
tended in the other hand. The conception of the rose- 
twined sword, signifying the beginning of an era of 
peace, is taken from German poetry. Victory looks 
out to the north, across the State of Texas and over 
the battle-field of San Jacinto. 

Symbolizing the revolt of the Texas colonists and 
the outbreak of the revolution, at the base of the col- 
umns on the east side of the monument is seated 
Defiance — a large bronze female figure. A lioness's 
pelt is thrown over her head and shoulders ; set in her 
zone, blazes the Lone Star. She is clad in armor, 
helmeted, and bears in her right hand an unsheathed 
sword. Sternly determined, the figure is depicted as 
ordering the Mexicans out of Texas territory. In the 

[136] 



TEXAS HEROES' MONUMENT 

stone at her feet is engraved the date of the outbreak 
of hostilities — October 2, 1835. 

Symbolizing with equal power the cessation of hos- 
tilities, on the west side of the monument is a large 
bronze figure of Peace. Majestically draped, she 
holds a sheathed sword in one hand. With the other 
hand she raises high the coat of arms of the republic 
of Texas. The Lone Star also crowns her head, 
twined with a wreath of laurel. At her feet is en- 
graved the date of the battle of San Jacinto — April 
21, 1836. 

A group of bronze figures, showing the genius of 
war and of diplomacy, adorns the north front of the 
monument at the base of the granite columns. The 
group, backed by a flag, supports a bronze medal- 
lion of General Sam Houston. To the south a simi- 
lar bronze group supports the bronze medallion of 
Stephen F. Austin. 

Extending completely around the sub-base of the 
monument is a frieze of bronze medallions of Henry 
Smith, Thomas J. Rusk, Mirabeau B. Lamar, Sidney 
Sherman, James Bowie, David G. Burnet, Edward 
Burleson, Benjamin R. Milam, James W. Fannin, 
and James Butler Bonham. 

Engraven on a bronze shield in the frieze are the 
names of William B. Travis, David Crockett, Francis 
W. Johnson, Deaf Smith, George W. Hockley, J. C. 
Neill, Henry W. Karnes, and Lorenzo de Zavala. Of 
none of these latter heroes of the early days in Texas 
are there authentic portraits extant. 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

The monument towers seventy-two feet high and 
is thirty-four feet square at the base. The light gray 
granite of the base and columns was brought from 
the quarries at Concord, N. H. The bronze was cast 
in Rome, Italy. 

The sculptor, Louis Amateis, of Washington, D.C., 
and New York, though a naturalized American citi- 
zen, is a native of Italy. He was born in Turin in 
1855, and achieved many notable works. His models, 
before casting, were submitted to a committee of art- 
ists, including G. Monteverde, E. Gallori, and G. 
Ferrari. 

Meigs O. Frost. 




D38] 



Part III 
ROSENBERG LIBRARY 




^4 



^ 



< 

o 

W 

o 






THE LIBRARY BEQUEST 

THE TWENTY-FIRST CLAUSE OF THE WILL OF 
HENRY ROSENBERG 

"All the rest and residue of my estate of which I 
shall die seized or possessed, or to which I shall be 
entitled at the time of my decease, I give to my said 
executors in trust for the purpose following: They 
shall preserve and maintain the same and reinvest the 
income thereof for a period of two years after my 
death. At the expiration of said two years they shall 
organize and endow a free public library for the use 
of the people of Galveston, together with free lec- 
tures upon practical literary and scientific subjects, 
and such other incidents to a great public library as 
may be most conducive to the improvement, instruc- 
tion, and elevation of the citizens of Galveston; and 
for this purpose they shall cause an association to be 
chartered with such trustees and directors as they may 
deem expedient, under such rules and regulations as 
will best carry out this devise. 

"In making this bequest, I desire to express in a 
practical form my afifection for the city of my adop- 
tion and for the people among whom I have lived for 
so many years, trusting that it will aid their intellec- 
tual and moral development, and be a source of plea- 
sure and profit to them and their children, and their 
children's children, through many generations." 

[140 



ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION 
OF THE 

ROSENBERG LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 

WHEREAS, Henry Rosenberg, late of the 
County of Galveston, has died, leaving a will 
which has been duly probated and recorded in the 
County Court of Galveston County, by the terms of 
which he constituted A. J. Walker and William J. 
Frederich independent executors without bond, giv- 
ing to the survivor in case of death of the other full 
powers to carry out the provisions of said will; and, 

Whereas, Since the probate of said will and his 
qualification as executor thereunder the said Wil- 
liam J. Frederich has died, leaving the said A. J. 
Walker sole surviving executor; and. 

Whereas, Further, by virtue of the provisions of 
the twxnty-first clause of the said will of the said 
Henry Rosenberg, his executors are charged with 
the duty of causing an association to be chartered, 
with such Trustees and Directors as they may deem 
expedient, as will best carry out the bequest for or- 
ganizing and endowing a free Public Library, for 
the use of the People of Galveston; 

Now, Therefore, Know All Men by these Pres- 
ents, That I, A. J. Walker, sole surviving executor of 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

the last will of Henry Rosenberg, deceased, and 
J. P. Alvey and I. Lovenberg, who are acting with 
the said executor and at his request, all of whom are 
citizens of the City and County of Galveston, in the 
State of Texas, and property taxpayers therein, do 
certify that we do, under and by virtue of the general 
laws of the State of Texas authorizing the formation 
of corporations, hereby form a corporation under the 
name of the "ROSENBERG LIBRARY ASSOCIATION" and 
adopt the following articles of incorporation: 

1. The name of the corporation shall be the ROSEN- 
BERG Library Association. 

2. A. J. Walker, M. E. Kleberg, W. T. Austin, 
John Sealy, J. P. Alvey, I. Lovenberg, H. A. Landes, 
M. F. Mott, M. R. Macgill Rosenberg, W. T. Arm- 
strong, J. F. Smith, Charles Fowler, J. D. Rogers, 
J. C. League, F. L. Lee, Geo. D. Briggs, John 
Goggan, T. W. Dealey, Clarence Ousley and C. L. 
Beissner are hereby created and constituted trustees 
of said corporation. They shall hold membership 
for life, unless the same be sooner terminated by 
resignation or removal from the City of Galveston, 
where they are required to reside. In case of a va- 
cancy from death, resignation, removal from the city, 
or from other cause, the remaining Trustees shall fill 
such vacancy. The number of Trustees shall be 
twenty, which number shall not be increased or 
diminished, and they shall be resident citizens of the 
City of Galveston, and property taxpayers therein. 

[144II 



THE CHARTER 

The Trustees designated in this charter, and their 
successors in office, in filling vacancies are requested 
to select men only of standing, reputation and ability, 
who will preserve the corporation from all political 
or personal favoritism and from all sectarianism, and 
shall administer the afifairs thereof purely and solely 
for the general public good. 

3. The Trustees provided in Article 2, and their 
successors in office, shall elect annually the Board of 
Directors hereinafter provided for, and shall fill all 
vacancies in their own body so as to keep their mem- 
bership up to the required number; they shall have 
power from time to time to make needful rules and 
regulations for the management of the corporation; 
to settle any diflferences which may arise among the 
Directors; to instruct the Directors as to the general 
policy of the corporation; to see that the funds are 
properly invested by the Directors, the revenues 
thereof collected and properly applied; to renew this 
charter at the expiration of its limit, and from time 
to time thereafter to renew and extend the same under 
the then existing laws; and generally to have super- 
vision and control over the business and affairs of the 
Association, to the end that the bequest of HENRY 
Rosenberg shall be properly administered. The 
Board of Trustees shall be self-perpetuating, and the 
members thereof shall not be selected in any other 
mode than that prescribed in Article 2. 

4. The purpose for which said Association is or- 

CHsn 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

ganized is to carry out the provisions of the twenty- 
first clause of the will of the said Henry ROSENBERG, 
which is as follows : 

Twenty-first — All the rest and residue of my estate of 
which I shall die seized or possessed, or to which I shall 
be entitled at the time of my decease, I give to my said 
executors in trust for the purpose following: They shall 
preserve and maintain the same and reinvest the income 
thereof for a period of two years after my death. At the 
expiration of said two years they shall organize and en- 
dow a free public library for the use of the people of 
Galveston, together with free lectures upon practical liter- 
ary and scientific subjects, and such other incidents to a 
great public library as may be most conducive to the im- 
provement, instruction and elevation of the citizens of 
Galveston; and for this purpose they shall cause an asso- 
ciation to be chartered with such trustees and directors as 
they may deem expedient, under such rules and regulations 
as will best carry out this devise. In making this bequest, 
I desire to express in practical form my affection for the 
city of my adoption and for the people among whom I 
have lived for so many years, trusting that it will aid their 
intellectual and moral development, and be a source of 
pleasure and profit to them and their children, and their 
children's children, through many generations. 

5. The corporate powers of said Association shall 
be vested in a board of seven directors, who shall be 
members of the Board of Trustees of the Association, 
and who shall be elected annually by the Trustees out 
of their own number at such time and place as the 

D463 



THE CHARTER 

By-Laws of the Association may direct. The follow- 
ing named, all of whom are resident citizens of the 
City of Galveston, in the State of Texas, and property 
taxpayers therein, shall be directors for the first year, 
to wit: A. J. Walker, John Sealy, J. P. Alvey, I. Lov- 
enberg, H. A. Landes, W. T. Austin and M. F. Mott. 

6. The business of said Association shall be trans- 
acted in the City of Galveston, in the County of Gal- 
veston, in the State of Texas, where its principal office 
shall be. 

7. This being an association organized for the pur- 
pose of administering a charitable bequest, it has no 
stock. The estimated value of its property is five hun- 
dred thousand dollars ($500,000). 

8. The term of the existence of this corporation is 
fifty years, with power to extend the same from time 
to time thereafter under the laws then existing so as 
to perpetuate the same and carry out the objects of 
said bequest. 

A. J. Walker. 

L LOVEXBERG. 

J. P. Alvey. 

The State of Texas, 
County of Galveston. 

Before me, John Adriance, a notary public in and 
for the said State and County, on this day personally 
appeared A. J. Walker, J. P. Alvey and I. Loven- 
berg, known to me to be the persons whose names are 

C147] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

subscribed to the foregoing instrument, and acknow- 
ledged to me that they executed the same for the pur- 
poses and consideration therein expressed. 

Given under my hand and seal of office this 5th day 
of July, A.D. 1900. 
[Seal.] John Adriance, 

Notary Public for Galveston County, Texas. 

Filed in the office of the Secretary of State this 
loth day of July, 1900. 

Geo. T. Keeble, 

Chief Clerk, Acting Secretary of State. 



ChS] 




Capt. James P. AL\iiV, Treasurer Col. Makci's F. Mott, Vice-Pr,siiicnt Isidore LovENnEKG, .SVc;?/rt>7 

Henry A. I.andes Major A. J. Walker, President Wiii.iam T. Austin 

John Sealv 



THE ROSENBERG LIBRARY 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS 
1900-1904 



Plate No. 3 1 



TRUSTEES AND DIRECTORS 



The Board of Trustees, 1900- 1903 



Major A. J. WALKER 
Marcellus E. Kleberg 
William T. Austin 
John Sealy 
Capt. James P. Alvey 
Isidore Lovenberg 
Henry A. Landes 
Col. Marcus F. Mott 
Mrs. M. R. Macgill 
Rosenberg 

Charles L. 



William T. Armstrong 
John F. Smith 
Charles Fowler 
John D. Rogers 
John C. League 
Francis L. Lee 
George D. Briggs 
John Goggan 
Thomas W. Dealey 
Clarence Ousley 
Beissner 



The Board of Directors, 1900- 1904 

Major A. J. WALKER, President 

Col. Marcus F. Mott, Vice-President 

Isidore Lovenberg, Secretary 

Capt. James P. Alvey, Treasurer 

John Sealy William T. Austin 

Henry A. Landes 



D49] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 



The Board OF Trustees, 191 8 



John Sealy 

William T. Armstrong 

John F. Smith 

Charles Fowler 

George D. Briggs 

Henry P. Cooke 

Mrs. Cornelia Branch Stone 

R. Waverley Smith 

William R. A. Rogers 

Ballinger Mills 



John W. Hopkins 
Louis A. Adoue 
Waters S. Davis 
Edward Randall 
Robert G. Street 
William S. Carter 
J. Wharton Terry 
Herman O. Stein 
George Sealy 
Frank C. Patten 



The Board of Directors, 191 8 

John Sealy, President 

R. Waverley Smith, Vice-President 

Ballinger Mills, Secretary 

Herman O. Stein, Treasurer 

William T. Armstrong William R. A. Rogers 

Edward Randall 

Librarian, 1903 to Date 
Frank C. Patten 



CiSo] 



TRUSTEES AND DIRECTORS 



Members of the Board of Trustees, 1900-1918 

a complete list showing the years 
of service of each 



Major A. J. Walker' 
Marcellus E. Kleberg' 
William T. Austin' 
John Sealy . 
Capt. James P. Alvey^ 
Isidore Lovenberg' 
Henry A. Landes^ . 
Col. Marcus F. Mott' 
Mrs. M. R. Macgill 

Rosenberg' . 
William T. Armstrong 
John F. Smith . 
Charles Fowler 
John D. Rogers' 
John C. League' 
Francis L. Lee' 
George D. Briggs . 
John Goggan' . 
Thomas W. Dealey^ 
Clarence Ousley^ . 
Charles L. Beissner' 
Thomas J. Groce' . 
Henry P. Cooke, M.D. 

1 Deceased. ^ Removed 

C15O 



1 900- 1 904 
19OO-1913 
I 900- I 905 
1900- 
1900-1916 
19OO-1917 
1 900-191 2 
1 900- 1 906 

I9OO-1917 

1900- 

1900- 

1900- 

1900- 1 908 

I9OO-1916 

I9OO-I914 

1900- 

1900- 1 908 

I 900- I 906 

1 900- 1 903 

1 900-191 2 

I905-I9II 

1905- 



from citv. 



HENRY ROSENBERG 



Mrs. Cornelia Branch Stone 


1906- 


R. Waverley Smith 


1906- 


Charles P. MacgilP 






1907-19 1 5 


William R. A. Rogers 






1909- 


Ballinger Mills 






1909- 


John W. Hopkins . 






1 9 1 2- 


Louis A. Adoue 






I912- 


Waters S. Davis 






I9I3- 


Edward Randall, M.D. 




• I914- 


Judge Robert G. Street 




• I915- 


William S. Carter, M.D. 




I916- 


J. Wharton Terry . 




I916- 


Herman O. Stein . 




I917- 


George Sealy 




I918-- 


Frank C. Patten . . 




. I918- 


1 Removed f 


rom 


citv. 





[152:1 



TRUSTEES AND DIRECTORS 



Members of the Board of Directors, i 900-1 91 8 
Major A. J. Walker . . . 1900-1904 

President 1 900- 1904 
(Died Nov. 29, 1904) 

Col. Marcus F. Mott . . . 1900-1906 

Vice-President 1900-1904 
President 1904-1906 
(Died Nov. 18, 1906) 

John Sealy 1900- 

Vice-President 1904-1906 
President 1906- 

Isidore Lovenberg . . . . 1900-1917 

Secretary 1900-1917 
(Died Oct. 7, 1917) 

Capt. James P. Alvey . . . 1900-1916 

Treasurer 1900-1916 
(Died Dec. 21, 1916) 

William T. Austin . . . . 1900-1905 

(Died Nov. 6, 1905) 

Henry A. Landes .... 1900-1912 

(Removed from city) 

Francis L. Lee 1904-1914 

Vice-President 1906-19 14 
(Died June 9, 1914) 

William T. Armstrong . . 1905- 
R. Waverley Smith . . . 1906- 

Vice-President 191 5- 

William R. A. Rogers . . . 1912- 
Edward Randall, M.D. . . 1914- 
Herman O. Stein .... 1917- 

Treasurer 1917- 

Ballinger Mills .... 1917- 

Secretary 1917- 
1:1533 



ROSENBERG LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 

General Financial Statement 

The corporate powers of the Rosenberg Library 
Association, which is composed of twenty trustees, are 
vested by charter in a board of seven Directors who 
are Trustees of the Association. The first Rosenberg 
Library Board of Directors was organized and 
elected officers on October 17, 1900. It consisted of 
the following persons: Major A. J. WALKER, Presi- 
dent; Colonel Marcus F. Mott, Vice-President; 
Captain JAMES P. Alvey, Treasurer; ISIDORE Lov- 
ENBERG, Secretary; JOHN Sealy; WILLIAM T. 
Austin; Henry A. Landes. 

In February, 1901, the residuum of the Henry 
Rosenberg estate, valued as per inventory at $620,- 
529.69, was turned over to the above Board by Major 
A. J. Walker, the sole surviving executor. (Of this 
amount $51,720 was not actually transferred until 
later, and appears in the Treasurer's account under 
date of December 14, 1904.) The Board then pur- 
chased a site and erected a library building, and also 
erected a branch library building for colored people 
(an addition to the high school building for colored 
people). The library site, buildings, furniture, and 
books were paid for out of the funds received from 
the executor. The endowment fund has been in- 

DS53 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

creased from time to time from the profits on stocks 
and real estate and from unused income. In the fol- 
lowing table the income shown has been derived 
from interest on bonds and notes, dividends on stocks, 
and from rents. The expenditures shown are those 
for library purposes only and include payments for 
books, current periodicals, binding, heating, light- 
ing, insurance, printing, stationery, supplies, furni- 
ture, repairs, miscellaneous library expenses, lectures, 
and salaries of library stafif, janitors, gardener, and 
clerks. 



Ds6] 



INCOME AND EXPENDITURES 



Library Income and Expenditures 
from February, igoi, to December, igij 



Year 


Income 


Expenditures 


901-1904 


$87,881.38 . . 


$27,059.17 


1905 . 


22,104.26 


18,874.64 


1906 


23,015.75 . 


18,676.04 


1907 . 


24,051.06 


20,395.58 


1908 


25,527.50 . 


i7.572.54 


1909 . 


26,119.02 


21,680.82 


1910 


27,282.00 


21,900.1 I 


1911 


28,774.40 . 


21,027.48 


1912 


28,400.30 


22,068.80 


1913 • 


29,925.14 . 


23.043-45 


1914 . 


. 31,017.84 . 


23.475-05 


1915 • 


30.917-73 • 


23,113.26 


1916 


29-I59-43 • 


. 26,440.39 


19:7 . 


29,207.97 . 


25,118.69 



[■573 



HENRY ROSENBERG 



Library Income and Expenditures for the 
year ending December j/, igi7 

Income from interest, dividends, and rents . $29,207.97 
Expenditures : 

Books $2,961.79 

Current periodicals . . 743.94 

Binding 645.81 

Maintenance — Heating, 
lighting, insurance, print- 
ing, stationery, supplies, 

repairs, etc 5,623.43 

Salaries of library staff, 
janitors, gardener, and 

clerks 13,227.72 

Lectures 1,916.00 



Total library expenditures . $25,1 1 8.69 



[158] 



ASSETS 



Assets: The Library Endowment Fund, January i, igi8 

Bonds : 

Galveston City limited 

debt, 5% . . . . $3,000.00 

Galveston City grade-rais- 
ing, 5% .... 42,000.00 

Galveston City municipal 

building, 5% ... 40,000.00 

Galveston City sewer, 5% , 24,000.00 

Galveston County sea-wall, 

4% 52,700.00 

Galveston Wharf Co. regis- 
tered, 6% .... 42,000.00 

Galveston Wharf Co. regis- 
tered (50-year), 5% . 151,000.00 

Galveston Wharf Co. regis- 
tered (25-year), 5% . 33,000.00 

California State, 4% . . 10,000.00 

New York City registered, 

4% 25,000.00 

New York State regis- 
tered, 4% .... 5,000.00 

United States Liberty 

Loan, 4% .... 17,500.00 

Mallory Steamship Co., 5% 19,000.00 

Brooklyn Elevated R.R. 

Co., 5% .... 15,000.00 

Chicago, Burlington & 

Quincy R.R. Co., 4% . 6,000.00 

D59] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

Chicago, Burlington & 

Quincy R.R.Co. reg., 4% 15,000.00 

Fort Worth & Denver R.R. 

Co., 6% .... 15,000.00 

Southern Pacific R.R. Co., 

4% 16,000.00 

Wichita Falls & Northwest- 
ern R.R. Co., 5% . . 5,000.00 
Stocks : $536,200.00 

Galveston Wharf Co., 717 

shares at $90 . . . $64,530.00 

American Power & Light 

Co., 47 shares . . . 4,700.00 

Southern Cotton Compress 

and Mfg. Co., 568 

shares, less liquidating 

dividends 30% . . . 3,976.00 

T»Mi • 11 7'?, 206.00 

Bills receivable: '-^^ 

Vendor's lien notes, 7% . $350.00 

Vendor's lien notes, 6% . 2,000.00 

Real estate: '^-^ 

Lanier property, 24th St. and 

Ave. I $14,912.73 

^Lots I and 2 in block 260, 

2 1 St St. and Ave. H . 9,110.80 

24,023.53 

Cash on hand 2,866.54 

Total library endowment fund . . . .$638,646.07 

^ Property owned but not here included, because outside of sea- 
wall: lots 3 to 14 in block 365; lots i to 4 and 8 to 14 in block 
601 ; lots I to 7 in block 602. 

C160!] 



ASSETS 

Assets: Property used for Library Purposes, 
January i, igiS 
Main Library: 

Site, 1 20 X 214 

feet . . $19,193.00 
Building, 87 x 

134 feet . 153,968.69 
Furniture and 

fixtures . 26,452.88 
Books . . 58,238.70 

$257,853.27 

Branch Library for Colored 
People : 
Building . . $3,587-35 
Furniture and 

fixtures . 257.56 

Books . . 2,233.57 

6,078.48 



Total property used for library purposes $263,931.75 



Assets: Summary, January i, igi8 

The library endowment fund . . . .$638,646.07 
Property used for library purposes . . . 263,931.75 



Total assets of Rosenberg Library Asso- 
ciation $902,577.82 



1:1613 




< 

o 

w 

Z 
W 

o 
Pi 

o 

w 

o 

h 

W 

z 

o 
u 

w 
H 

a 

l-H 
< 



o 

M 
H 

<: 

PL, 



LAYING THE CORNER-STONE OF 
ROSENBERG LIBRARY 

The corner-stone of the Rosenberg Library was laid 
on Saturday, October i8, 1902, by the Most Worship- 
ful Grand Lodge of Texas, A.F. and A.M., Marcus 
F. Mott, P.G.M., acting as Grand Master. The Ma- 
sonic bodies gathered at the Masonic Temple at three 
o'clock and marched in procession organized by 
Grand Marshal James J. Davis to the library site. 
Tiedemann's band headed the procession, which was 
escorted by San Felipe de Austin Commandery No. 
I, Knights Templar. 

On the platform were seated Mrs. Rosenberg and 
her immediate friends and family, the officers and 
trustees of the Rosenberg Library Association, the 
City Commissioners, the County Commissioners, and 
other prominent officials and citizens. About twelve 
hundred people, standing within the enclosure or on 
the streets, witnessed the ceremony. Immediately 
around the corner-stone were assembled the Knights 
Templar and the Blue Lodge Masons. 

Music by the band introduced the program. The 
Masonic ceremony of Laying the Foundation Stone 
followed. The Masonic invocation was by Rev. John 
K. Black, of Grace Church, who officiated as Grand 
Chaplain. The following were the Grand Officers 

C163] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

of the M. W. Grand Lodge of Texas, acting for the 
occasion: 

R. W. Marcus F. Mott . . . Grand Master 
W. Frank M. Walker Deputy Grand Master 
W. Edward C. Pitkin . Grand Senior Warden 
W.Ben C. Hill . . Grand Junior Warden 
W. Isidore LoVENBERG . . Grand Treasurer 
W. Leopold Weiss . . . Grand Secretary 
W. John K. Black .... Grand Chaplain 
W. James B. StuBBS . . . Grand Orator 

R. W. James J. Davis, D. D. G. M. Grand Marshal 
W. Rowland P. Allen Grand Senior Deacon 
W.James M. Fendley . Grand Junior Deacon 

W. Dominic D. McDonald 

Grand Senior Steward 
W. John HannA . . Grand Junior Steward 
W. Henry C. OppeRMANN . Grand Pursuivant 
Bro. William R. Eaton . . . Grand Tiler 

During the Masonic ceremony a few grains of 
wheat (symbolic of resurrection), a few drops of 
wine (symbolic of cheerfulness and joy), a few drops 
of oil (symbolic of prosperity and happiness), and a 
few grains of salt (symbolic of hospitality and fidel- 
ity), were deposited in a receptacle in the corner- 
stone. After the oration by James B. Stubbs, Grand 
Orator of the occasion, a Masonic ode was sung to 
the tune of "Auld Lang Syne." The ceremonies 
came to an end with a prayer and benediction by 
Rev. W. H. Cooper. 

[1643 




A 



CO 



o 
u 

h 



o 

< 
•J 



ARTICLES DEPOSITED IN THE CORNER- 
STONE OF ROSENBERG LIBRARY 

Copy of the will of Henry Rosenberg. 

Certified copy of the Articles of Incorporation of the 

Rosenberg Library Association. 
Photographs of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Rosenberg. 
Copy of the ordinance regarding the construction of 

the Galveston sea-wall. 
Copy of the Galveston News of October i8, 1902. 
Copy of the Opera Glass of October 18, 1902. 
Copy of the Galveston Tribune of October 17, 1902. 
Map of the City of Galveston contained in the Opera 

Glass of August 4, 1886. 
Printed copy of the Ceremony to be Observed at 
Laying the Foundation Stone of the Rosenberg 
Library. 
The Masonic symbols, wheat, wine, oil, and salt. 
Clippings from the following newspapers sent by 
Mrs. Mollie R. Macgill Rosenberg: 

Galveston News, Sunday, July i, 1888 — The 
corner-stone laid of the Henry Rosenberg free 
school. 
Richmond (Va.) Dispatch, November 14, 1889 
— Marriage of Henry Rosenberg and Mollie 
R. Macgill in Grace Protestant Episcopal 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

Church by Rev. Hartley Carmichael of St. 
Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, assisted 
by Rev. H. M. Jackson of Grace Protestant 
Episcopal Church. 

Galveston News, Saturday, May 13, 1893 — M^- 
Rosenberg's death; editorial on the death of 
Henry Rosenberg. 

Galveston News, Sunday, May 14, 1893 — Mr. 
Rosenberg's funeral; the remains to lie in 
state in the Rosenberg free school. 

Galveston News, Monday, May 15, 1893 — The 
floral offerings; the funeral ceremonies over 
Henry Rosenberg at the Rosenberg free school 
and Grace Protestant Episcopal Church. 

Galveston News, Tuesday, May 16, 1893 — Trib- 
ute to Mr. Rosenberg; resolutions adopted by 
the vestry and congregation of Grace Protes- 
tant Episcopal Church. 

Galveston News, Wednesday, May 17, 1893 — 
Action of the schools ; tributes to the memory 
of the late Mr. Rosenberg. 

Galveston News, Sunday, May 21, 1893 — ^ 
city's tribute; gratitude and praise to Henry 
Rosenberg; his name on every lip; etc. 

Galveston News, Thursday, May 25, 1893 — The 
City Council's action; eloquent resolutions to 
the memory of Henry Rosenberg. 

Galveston News, Wednesday, May 31, 1893 — 
People's tribute; Galveston's citizens honor 

[166] 



ARTICLES IN CORNER-STONE 

the name of Henry Rosenberg; mammoth 
mass meeting. 

Baltimore (Md.) Sun, ]unQ i, 1893 — Burial of 
the Texas philanthropist, Henry Rosenberg, 
in Loudon Park Cemetery. 

Galveston Neivs, Friday, February 15, 1895 — 
Beautiful snow; it fills the air and the earth 
below; business suspended; etc. 

Galveston News, Sunday, January 5, 1896 — 
Rosenberg, poem by T. Talbot. 

Richmond (Va.) Ti7nes,]\i\y 12, 1898 — A pub- 
lic benefactor; Frank Leslie's dwells on the 
philanthropy of the late Henry Rosenberg. 

Hagerstown (Md.) D^x/Zj- M<2z7, Monday, April 
24, 1899 — To blessed memories are splendid 
donations placed in St. John's Protestant Epis- 
copal Church by Mrs. Mollie R. Macgill 
Rosenberg, in memory of her husband, Mrs. 
Letitia Rosenberg, her parents, her sisters, 
brothers, and grandparents. 

Galveston News, April 22, 1901, and the Satur- 
day Review, April 20, 1901 — Mrs. Mollie R. 
Macgill Rosenberg's gift to Veuve Jefferson 
Davis Chapter No. 17, U.D.C. 

All of the above clippings are wrapped in a letter 
received by Mrs. Rosenberg from Governor Joseph 
D. Sayers, April 14, 1900, and placed in an official 
envelope of Veuve Jefferson Davis Chapter No. 17, 

[167] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

U.D.C., with an official sheet of paper of the general 
association of the Daughters of the Confederacy, of 
which association Mrs. MoUie R. Macgill Rosenberg 
is first vice-president. In the envelope is also a Jef- 
ferson Davis monument fund subscribing member's 
button. 



Ci68] 







mmsmmimiBKS^- 




ROSENBERG LIBRARY 
Galveston, Texas, in 1906 

Northwest Corner Tremont Street and Sealy Avenue 
Building dedicated June 22, 1904 
Size, 87 X 134 feet; cost, $155,000 



Plate No. 34 



THE DEDICATION OF 
ROSENBERG LIBRARY 

The Rosenberg Library was dedicated on Wednes- 
day, June 22, 1904, the birthday of the founder. The 
whole building was finely decorated with palms, 
ferns, flowers, and the flags of the United States, of 
Texas, and of Switzerland, Mr. Rosenberg's native 
country. A large portrait of Mr. Rosenberg occu- 
pied the place of honor in the spacious corridor in 
the centre of the main floor. The building was open 
for inspection during the afternoon, and many came 
to see and admire the new Library, for Galveston 
was congratulating herself upon now possessing a 
beautiful and dignified library building, one of the 
largest and finest in all the South. And Galveston 
was very proud that this splendid gift was from one 
of her own citizens, and she was very proud and 
grateful that this last and largest bequest of Henry 
Rosenberg had enabled the wise and faithful execu- 
tor, Major A. J. Walker, and the Board of Directors 
thus to establish an institution with a large endow- 
ment that might sometime develop into one of the 
most important libraries of the South. The people 
of Galveston had looked forward for years with high 
hopes to this day when their new Free Public Library 
should be fully established and thrown open for pub- 

1:169] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

lie use. For the evening exercises at eight o'clock a 
large and representative intellectual audience assem- 
bled in the library lecture hall on the second floor 
for the program in celebration of this great event in 
the life of Galveston. Mr. Henry F. Dickson, Presi- 
dent of the Carnegie Library of Houston, and other 
trustees of that library and the librarian, were pres- 
ent at the celebration in the lecture hall and the re- 
ception which followed. William M. Prather, Presi- 
dent of the University of Texas, was expected to de- 
liver an address, but was at the last moment prevented 
from coming, much to the regret of all. 



PROGRAM 
Ballp:t egyptien Lutgini 

St. Cecilia Orchestra 

Address Vice-President M. F. Mott 

(a) "How Sweet the Moonlight" . . . Calcott 

(b) Daffodil King Hal 

Sextet from the Ladies' Musical Club 

Address Hon. M. E. Kleberg 

Largo Handel 

St. Cecilia Orchestra 

Address Hon. Arthur Lefevre 

State Superintendent of Public Education 

Haberina Redla 

St. Cecilia Orchestra 



[170II 



DEDICATION OF LIBRARY 

On the Reception Committee were the following: 

W. R. A. Rogers, Chairman 
R. Waverley Smith Charles Fowler 

Dr. Edward Randall J. H. Hill 

Sealy Hutchings H. A. Griffin 

Judge Lewis Fisher I. H. Kempner 

Major A. J. Walker, President of the Board of 
Directors, presided at the dedication exercises. 
Colonel M. F. Mott, Vice-President, reviewed the 
work of the Board of Directors and gave a brief 
sketch of the life of Henry Rosenberg. He paid a 
tribute to Galveston's other benefactors, mentioning 
George Ball, John Sealy, and others. He spoke of 
the good and careful work of the contractor, Harry 
Devlin, in the erection of the building. And he made 
special mention of the faithful stewardship of the 
Rosenberg Fund rendered by Major Walker, the 
executor of the Rosenberg Estate, under whose skil- 
ful, conscientious, and public-spirited management 
during eleven years the fund had greatly increased, 
thus making possible the present splendid library 
prospects. It is greatly to be regretted that Colonel 
Mott's fine address was never written out. 



[ryi] 



ADDRESS AT THE DEDICATION OF 
ROSENBERG LIBRARY 

BY HON. MARCELLUS E. KLEBERG 

A TRUE and sympathetic appreciation of a function 
fraught with so much benefit and benevolence to the 
people of this community as the opening and dedi- 
cation of this Library requires of those who partici- 
pate in its ceremonies an effort akin to its lofty dig- 
nity. I am painfully conscious of my deficiency in 
this respect — a deficiency which is multiplied by lack 
of opportunity for deliberate reflection and careful 
preparation by reason of the many pressing and 
incessant engagements upon my time and leisure. In 
the outset, therefore, I solicit your generous indul- 
gence. 

The completion of this Library and its dedication 
to the public mark an epoch in the educational prog- 
ress of this city. For the first time in the history of 
our city there is offered to the public, without fee or 
price, the invaluable aid which a public library 
affords to a high and liberal self-culture. I know of 
no institution outside of a good system of public 
schools that contributes so largely to the general cul- 
ture of a community as a carefully furnished and 
regulated library. In our country religious training 
must ever find its stronghold in the church and fam- 

1:1733 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

ily, but mental training has its beginning in the 
schools, colleges, and universities, and finds its most 
ample opportunities for enlargement afforded by the 
public library. 

The great influence of public libraries upon the 
progress and civilization of mankind was recognized 
by the polite and virile nations of antiquity, and the 
barbarous fate of the great Alexandrian Library and 
those of imperial Rome will always evoke the invol- 
untary sigh of scholar and statesman. During the 
long intellectual night which followed the subversion 
of Greek and Roman civilization, and which pre- 
vailed during the period of the Middle Ages, the 
great treasures of ancient learning, in so far as they 
escaped the ravages of time and torch, were pre- 
served to us by monk and priest in monastery and 
cloister. Within the walls of these sacred asylums 
the lamp of learning continued to burn with a steady 
light, and books and manuscripts which had escaped 
destruction were not only carefully preserved, but 
were so amply multiplied by transcription as to be 
placed beyond the peril of loss or extinction for all 
time. 

The mighty influence of the library upon the de- 
velopment of the people in every field of human 
endeavor is amply attested by the marvelous national 
libraries throughout the civilized world and the 
numberless institutions of this kind found in great 
and small cities, and even in villages, wherever civi- 
lized man finds a habitation. Millions are expended 

[>74] 



DEDICATORY ADDRESS 

for the preservation and maintenance of public 
libraries, and the proudest achievements of genius in 
architectural and decorative art find congenial ex- 
pression in the construction of library buildings. 

The public library is essentially the school for the 
grown-up. It presents equal opportunities for rich 
and poor, old and young, for the learned as well as 
for those of more modest literary acquirements. All 
may here partake of the "intellectual heritage of the 
centuries" and drink deep of the "Pierian spring." 
Public libraries add so vastly to the happiness of the 
great masses of our population who lack the means 
of providing intellectual nourishment, that we should 
all rejoice in their establishment and bless the mem- 
ory of those who give of their sustenance for that 
purpose. Hours of leisure, instead of being wasted 
in expensive idleness, may be spent in happy com- 
munion with the master minds of the ages. Good 
books are our faithful and unvarying friends. Time 
and circumstances do not change their affections, and 
in them we shall ever find counsel, comfort and com- 
panionship. 

"In the best books great men talk to us, give up 
their most precious thoughts and pour their souls into 
ours. God be thanked for books! They are the 
voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs 
of the spiritual life of the past ages. Books are the 
true levelers. They give to all who will faithfully 
use them the society and spiritual presence of the best 
and greatest of our race. No matter how poor I am, 

[175] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

no matter though the prosperous of my own time will 
not enter my obscure dwelling, if the sacred writers 
will enter and take up their abode under my roof, if 
Milton will cross my threshold to sing to me of Para- 
dise, and Shakespeare to open to me the worlds of 
imagination and the workings of the human heart, 
and Franklin to enrich me with his practical wisdom, 
I shall not pine for want of intellectual companion- 
ship and I may become a cultivated man, though ex- 
cluded from what is called the best society in the 
place where I live." 

Yet, aside from all these considerations which ap- 
ply to all public libraries all over the world, it seems 
to me that in our country the public library fulfils a 
yet higher and greater mission. Ours is a government 
"of the people, by the people, and for the people." 
Its very life depends upon the intelligence, virtue, 
and patriotism of its citizens. By the exercise of the 
elective franchise any citizen may influence its policy 
or perhaps its very institutions. How all-important 
that in the discharge of this high civic duty the citi- 
zen should equip himself with an intelligence equal 
to its momentous obligations! The public library 
will furnish him with the best thought and discus- 
sions on the great constitutional and economic issues 
which demand a solution at the ballot-box, and enable 
him to reach a decision by intelligent investigation, 
rather than by prejudices aroused by appeals to his 
passion and morbid political bias. A more intimate 
acquaintance with our National Constitution and the 

i:'763 



DEDICATORY ADDRESS 

theory of our government by the masses of the people 
will eliminate the social and governmental heresies 
which at times blur our public life, and will work for 
the perpetuity of our free institutions. 

My friends, we stand upon hallowed ground — 
doubly hallowed as the temple of literature, art, and 
science, and by an exalted altruism embracing within 
its sphere the people of this city for all time. A good 
and noble deed never dies. It is of the essence divine. 
And though beneath the sweep of centuries this 
stately building may crumble into dust, the blessed 
charity of Henry Rosenberg will live on in the hearts 
of the children of men. The last and greatest of the 
charities founded by Mr. Rosenberg stands com- 
pleted, a luminous monument to his benevolence and 
to his memory. His name will ever be kept in grate- 
ful repute by the people of this city, and the sen- 
timents which throb in our hearts to-day will be 
transmitted from generation to generation. 

Involuntarily these sentiments strive for expression 
in speech and embodiment in enduring pillar or 
monument as a testimonial of a noble and beneficent 
life. This is both natural and just. In every true 
and honest heart there dwells a desire to commemo- 
rate the deeds of those who have brought honor and 
blessings upon their kind. The good people of Gal- 
veston will not forget to honor the memory of their 
illustrious benefactor and thereby avow that benevo- 
lence is of the grandest of human virtues. 

But in a larger sense we cannot do anything to 

D77] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

enrich or exalt such a life. Its glories are written and 
its monuments reared in the blessings of these noble 
charities and in the unbidden acclaim of a grateful 
people. 

Howe'er it be, it seems to me, 

'Tis only noble to be good. 
Kind hearts are more than coronets. 

And simple faith than Norman blood. 



C178: 




< 



O 
w 

o 



o 

H 
H 

< 

PL, 




ROSENBERG LIBRARY IN 1910 




ROSENBERG LIBRARY IN 1913 



Plate No. 36 



-J" 



^iK^^SS 




ROSENBERG LIRRARY-East End 




ROSENBERG LlBRAR\~Suuth Side 



Plate No. 37 




x^.5^^ 




c 
W 

c 

o 

u 

Pi 
< 

pii 



a 

w 
w 

en 

o 
Pi 



o 

•J 




ROSENBERG LIBRARY-Looking North on Tremont Street 




THE BRANCH LIBRARY FOR COLORED PEOPLE 

This is an addition to the Central (Coh)red) High School Building 

Colored Branch addition shown at right 



Plate No. 39 



THE ROSENBERG LIBRARY BUILDING 

On the fifteenth of May, 1901, the Directors of the 
Rosenberg Library Association bought as a site for 
the Rosenberg Library building a plot of ground, 
120 X 215 feet, consisting of five lots at the northwest 
corner of Tremont Street and Sealy Avenue, the pur- 
chase price being $18,500/ In August, 1901, the 
Board of Directors employed Alfred F. Rosenheim, 
of St. Louis, as consulting architect for advice and 
assistance during the preparation of a competition 
program and the selection of a design for the Rosen- 
berg Library building. The program issued on 
August 23 called for a fire-proof building with two 
stories and basement, to cost $100,000, the building to 
contain rooms for the usual library departments with 
a capacity of 60,000 volumes, and also to contain 
a lecture hall to seat 500 or more people. The 
competition was limited to Ackerman & Ross, of 
New York; Eames & Young, of St. Louis; Thomas 
H. Kimball, of Omaha; and Galveston architects. 
The unsuccessful non-resident competitors were each 

^ The large house on the site was sold for $500, moved off in 
January, 1902, and made into the two houses at 1401 and 1405 
24th Street. This house was originally the residence of George 
Ball, who built it in 1857. A number of years later it was owned 
by P. J. Willis, Sr., and after that by J. G. Goldthwaite, who 
made extensive additions and repairs in 1881 and resided there until 
the latter part of the year igoo. 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

to receive $250. The two resident architects produc- 
ing the best designs were also to receive each $250. 
A decision was reached on October 31, 1901, and the 
design of Eames & Young was accepted. The best 
two designs by resident architects selected by the 
Board of Directors to receive prizes were those by 
George B. Stowe and Conlon & Koeppe. William 
S. Eames and Thomas C. Young, the successful com- 
petitors, have designed some of the very large and 
fine buildings of the United States, among which are 
the United States Custom-house at San Francisco and 
the Educational Building at the Louisiana Purchase 
Exposition of 1904. Eames & Young were members 
of the Commission of Architects of the Louisiana 
Purchase Exposition, and members of the St. Louis 
City Plan Commission. 

Mr. Young's design for the Rosenberg Library 
building called for a brick, stone, and terra-cotta 
structure, 87 x 134 feet in size, to have two stories 
and basement, with a height of 58 feet. Working 
drawings and details were prepared, and bids for 
construction were called for by advertisements in the 
latter part of February, 1902. The general contract 
for the construction of the building was let to Harry 
Devlin, a Galveston contractor, on March 21, for 
$126,500. The completed building cost about $155,- 
000, and with its book-shelving and furniture about 
$175,000. The building was constructed at a favor- 
able time, as the prices both for material and labor 
were then low. A few years later it would have cost 



LIBRARY BUILDING 

many thousands of dollars more to construct the same 
building. The corner-stone was laid with Masonic 
ceremony on October i8, 1902, and the building, com- 
pleted and furnished, was dedicated on June 22, 1904, 
the birthday of the founder. 

The Library has its principal front on Tremont 
Street, one of the best streets in the city. It is cen- 
trally located, in the edge of the residence district, 
quite near the business district, and not far from the 
principal public buildings. The public high school 
is only two blocks away. The Rosenberg Library 
building is one of the finest library buildings in the 
South. It is fire-proof and of very thorough, honest 
construction. It is used exclusively for library pur- 
poses. Its architectural style is late Italian Renais- 
sance — a very suitable style for a library. The struc- 
ture is massive and dignified and presents an appear- 
ance of great stability and distinction. The building 
is situated on extensive grounds, fifty feet back from 
Tremont Street and twenty-five feet back from Sealy 
Avenue, the grounds being elevated several feet above 
the street. The rows of palms along the sidewalks, 
the finely kept lawn, the architectural terrace on the 
Sealy Avenue side of the building, the Rosenberg 
statue, the large electroliers, and the imposing steps 
on the Tremont Street side, and the contrasting efifect 
of the light gray brick and cream-white terra-cotta of 
the exterior walls with the green tile roof, make the 
general appearance of the building very beautiful 
and stately. The building is admirable in the sim- 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

plicity of its outline and ornament, and it is especially 
successful in its proportions. Its beauty and dignity 
as a piece of architecture grow upon one as it is seen 
from year to year. Galveston is very proud of her 
fine library building. 

The building has concrete foundations 4 feet 10 
inches thick. The outer basement walls are 3 feet 
2 inches and the walls above are 2 feet 8 inches in 
thickness. The framework of the building is of 
very heavy structural steel. The lower course at the 
base of the building and the steps of the approaches 
are of light gray granite from Llano County, Texas. 
Above this, extending up to the windows of the main 
story, are courses of bufif Bedford, Indiana, lime- 
stone. The face brick of the exterior walls is light 
gray in color, made by the Hydraulic Press Brick 
Company of St. Louis. Cream-white, semi-glazed, 
and hard-burned terra-cotta is used for the architec- 
tural trimming of the doors and windows, and for the 
arches, the entablature, etc. In appropriate places in 
the terra-cotta surfaces palm leaves, oak and laurel 
wreaths, the cornucopia, and other designs are used 
as ornament. The cornice has a row of tiger heads, 
and each window gable has a book and scroll. Large 
ornamental panels next to the architrave at the tops 
of the brick piers have the names of these thirteen 
authors: Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, Mil- 
ton, Moliere, Hugo, Goethe, Schiller, Irving, Bry- 
ant, Emerson, Longfellow. For the pitched portion 
of the roof green Ludowici tile is used. Copper is 

[■823 



LIBRARY BUILDING 

used for the cresting, the gutters, and the top portion 
of the cornice. 

The building has very high stories, the doors and 
windows are very large, and the rooms are large and 
open, — all made suitable for this warm climate. The 
building is heated with steam and lighted by electric- 
ity and gas. A house telephone system connects the 
different rooms. All pipes and conduits are concealed 
in the walls and floors. The floors are of concrete 
with a finished surface of the best Southern yellow 
pine. Italian marble ("English vein") is used in the 
main story for the walls of the vestibule, wainscoting 
of the corridor and stairways, front of the lending 
counter, and for the front room mantels. Georgia 
marble (Kenesaw Mountain) is used in the basement. 
For the interior finish oak is used in the first and sec- 
ond stories and hard pine in the basement. Oak fur- 
niture is used throughout. The trimming hardware 
and fixtures are of bronze. 

The same simplicity of ornament and excellence 
of proportions are to be seen inside the building as 
outside. The main entrance is from Tremont Street 
between dignified electroliers, up the stately granite 
steps of the approach, through finely carved oak 
doors and marble vestibule into a spacious corridor 
with white plastered walls, large square pillars and 
pilasters, deep ceiling beams, marble wainscoting, 
and marble floor. 

The two large front rooms opening off the corridor 
without partitions are used for reading rooms for 

Ci83] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

current periodicals. They have paneled oak walls, 
carved oak pilasters, oak ceiling beams, and marble 
mantels. Opening from the south and north sides of 
the corridor through carved oak glazed doors with 
Florentine glass are the library offices and work 
rooms with vaults and closets. These rooms have 
light-colored oak wainscoting, paneling, and furni- 
ture. 

Centrally located at the end of the corridor is the 
lending desk, the library headquarters for informa- 
tion and public service, and for oversight. Beyond 
the lending desk, opening from the corridor without 
partition, is the general book room, occupying the 
whole west end of the main story. This room is used 
both for the lending department and the reference 
department. The children's department also was 
here until the growth of the Library in size and use 
compelled its removal in 191 5 to the larger quarters 
in the second story originally designed for this pur- 
pose. The electric lighting in the corridor and gen- 
erally throughout the building is from lights with 
reflectors placed near the ceiling. Two stairways 
with marble steps, beautiful newel posts, and wrought- 
iron railing lead from the north and south sides of the 
corridor to the second story. 

The second story corridor has a large leaded-glass 
skylight of simple geometric design in colors. Open- 
ing from this corridor are the children's rooms, class 
room, special collections room, and the large lecture 
hall. The children's rooms occupy the whole east end 

D843 



LIBRARY BUILDING 

of the second story, the entrance to which is through 
an oak grille partition. These rooms have beautiful 
carved oak mantels, oak pilasters with carved caps, 
oak ceiling beams, and specially designed oak shelv- 
ing and furniture. The story room has specially de- 
signed book-cases with glass fronts for the finely 
bound and illustrated books of the Library, drawers 
and cabinets for pictures, and benches for story-hour 
time. The partition separating the story room is 
largely of oak grille work, needed in the long sum- 
mer to admit freely the sea breezes. Transoms and 
heavy shades running in grooves serve to shut off the 
room during story-hour or the meeting of a study 
club. The exhibit cases are a special feature of the 
children's rooms. 

From the second story corridor the lecture hall is 
entered through a vestibule with three pairs of double 
doors. Pilasters with Ionic capitals ornament the 
walls. The ceiling has very heavy beams and panels 
and a large and beautiful decorative skylight of col- 
ored leaded-glass in geometric and other designs. 
Comfortable opera chairs are arranged in a semi- 
circle, with the floor sloping toward the platform 
with its anterooms at the west end. The acoustic 
properties are good. With the gallery space there 
are about seven hundred seats. The hall is equipped 
with a stereopticon, opaque screen, and heavy black 
window shades for darkening the room in the day- 
time. 

The basement has the boiler room and shop, the 

C185: 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

public toilets, packing room, work rooms, and rest 
room for staff use. Most of the basement space is 
used for shelving for books, pamphlets, periodicals, 
and newspapers. Space in the attic is used for stor- 
age purposes. 



I'm 




V2 

< 
-1 



-3 

5 




Z 

< 



< ^ 
^ 2 





MAIN CORRIDOR 



Plate Xo. 41 





PERIODICAL READING ROOMS AND CORRIDOR 



Plate No. 42 




BOOK ROOM 

Showing Reference Desk 



Plate No. 43 




BOOK ROOM 

Showing Card Catalog and Lending Counter 



Plate No. 44 




OFFICES OF LIBRARIAiN AND FIRST ASSISTANT 



Plate No. 45 



1 . 


1 -t 

iMilHii 


mm 


SI- 


1 l^^l 


^^r^^^ 


fl 






^W|^' I^H 


'^■P 1 




CATALOGING AND WORK ROOMS 



Plate No. 46 





>^ 
o 

H 
Q 

;z; 
o 
u 
w 

zn 

o 

h 

t-H 
< 

h 

CO 



o 




LECTURE HALL L\ SECOND STORY 



Plate No. 48 




CHILDREN'S DEPARTMENT-Entrance 




CHILDREN'S DEPARTMENT-Reading Room 



Plate No. 49 




CHILDREN'S DEPARTMENT-Readins Room 




e HILDRICN'S DEPARTMENT-Story Room 



Plate No. 50 




Alice and Her Pig 



The March Hare 




Old Mother Hubbard 



Jack the Giant Killer 



WOOD CARVINGS ON SETTLES IN CHILDREN'S 
READING ROOM 



Plate No. 51 




o 

o 



Z 

w 

Q 



u 



u 




O 
O 



o 



TfiE DEVELOPMENT OF THE 
ROSENBERG LIBRARY 

BY FRANK C. PATTEN, LIBRARIAN 

By the will of Henry Rosenberg, merchant and 
banker of Galveston, who died on the twelfth of May, 
1893, provision was made for the organization and 
endowment of a free public library in Galveston 
under wise and liberal conditions that led to the foun- 
dation of a library on a broad basis. About a week 
after Mr. Rosenberg's death the executors permitted 
the publication of an account of his munificent public 
bequests. This account showed that Mr. Rosenberg 
had provided that his residuary legatee should be a 
free public library, and it was expected, from the size 
of his other bequests, that the amount that would be 
left for the public library would be much larger than 
that for any other purpose. In the minds of the peo- 
ple of Galveston there were aroused great anticipa- 
tions of the future public library that was to be estab- 
lished as an institution of large usefulness and one 
that would be the pride of the city. 



THE BEGINNINGS 

Many years elapsed before the large estate of Mr. 
Rosenberg had been so far settled that steps could be 
taken for the establishment of the Library. On July 

[1873 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

lo, 1900, a charter was granted by the State of Texas 
to the Rosenberg Library Association. The charter 
had been signed by Major A. J. Walker, the executor 
of the estate, and Captain J. P. Alvey and I. Loven- 
berg, prominent citizens of Galveston, whom Major 
Walker had associated with himself and Colonel 
M. F. Mott, attorney for the estate, in organizing the 
Library. The charter provided for a self-perpetu- 
ating board of trustees of twenty members, each 
elected for life, and in the articles of incorporation 
the original twenty members were named. The char- 
ter also provided for a managing board of seven di- 
rectors to be elected by the trustees from their own 
number at their annual meeting each year, and the 
persons to compose the first Board of Directors were 
named as follows: Major A. J. Walker, Colonel 
M. F. Mott, Captain J. P. Alvey, L Lovenberg, John 
Sealy, H. A. Landes, and W. T. Austin. This Board 
of Directors organized on October 17, 1900, with 
Major A. J. Walker as president; Colonel M. F. 
Mott, vice-president; Captain J. P. Alvey, treasurer; 
and I. Lovenberg, secretary. In February, 1901, 
Major A. J. Walker, as executor of the Rosenberg 
estate, turned over to the Board of Directors, for the 
Rosenberg Library, the residue of the estate, which 
was by inventory valued at $620,529.69. In the fol- 
lowing May a site was purchased, in August a com- 
petition program for the building was issued, and the 
plan was selected in October. Following advertise- 
ments in February, 1902, the general contract for the 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARY 

building was awarded in March, and in October the 
corner-stone was laid. On July 24, 1903, Frank C. 
Patten, of the Lenox Library, New York City, who 
had recently been chosen librarian by the Board of 
Directors, arrived in Galveston to take up his duties. 
The work of making plans for the organization of 
the new institution was immediately begun. During 
the next few months the members of the library staff 
were chosen, the work of selecting and buying books 
entered upon, and plans made for the necessary shelv- 
ing and furniture and for the system to be adopted 
for the new Library. 



PLANNING THE LIBRARY SYSTEM 

The new library building was large, dignified, and 
beautiful, and was surrounded by fine grounds. The 
new furniture was simple and pleasing, in keeping 
with the beautiful library interior. All was so 
planned in design and arrangement as to make the 
rooms attractive and somewhat homelike, avoiding 
both the uninviting formality of many public build- 
ings and the domestic aspect of a room in a home. 
There was thus produced an appearance that would 
be very suitable for a library, conducive to the appro- 
priate atmosphere of welcome, and suggestive of the 
quiet, studious, working place that a public library 
should be. 

In these attractive rooms we were about to open a 

1:1893 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

new library with an encouraging prospect for future 
growth, and it was important to start right. The 
Library must be made a really useful public institu- 
tion. In making plans for such an institution there 
must be a systematic foundation for a large future 
sufficient to build on for many years to come. There 
must be a thorough and complete organization, one 
that would prove adequate with the growth of years, 
and so elastic that the system would grow naturally 
with the growth of the Library in size and use; yet 
it must be as simple an organization as possible, with 
no more machinery than would be really necessary to 
accomplish its purpose. 

Such a library as ours would not only contain books 
and current periodicals, but there would be pam- 
phlets, maps, charts, photographs, pictures, prints, 
manuscripts, and articles of historic, scientific, and 
artistic interest. These would come to the Library 
not only by purchase, but by donation and exchange. 
Books and other articles for purchase must be care- 
fully selected and ordered, and there must be careful 
attention to receiving, checking, and accessioning in 
a businesslike manner. There must be a cataloging 
system that would be adequate for the Library of a 
hundred thousand volumes and more that we ex- 
pected some day to have, a system that would not 
break down in a few years. The cataloging must be 
done intelligently and accurately by expert assistants, 
so that the catalog would not become confused with 
blunders and errors and the work all have to be done 

[190;] 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARY 

over again a few years later. Donations and ex- 
changes must be properly acknowledged. Binding 
and mending must receive careful attention. Books 
would wear out, and there must be withdrawals. 
Losses and thefts must be guarded against. Current 
periodicals must be provided and placed in the read- 
ing rooms and later filed away promptly and prop- 
erly. There must be a suitable plan of registry and 
guarantee for borrowers. Books loaned for home 
reading must be properly charged and their return 
recorded, with necessary fines for overtime, injury 
and loss. 

Such a library as ours would be a reference library 
as well as a lending library and it would be for chil- 
dren as well as for adults. There would be exhibits 
on a small scale from time to time. And in addition 
to the usual library activities, instructive, popular 
free lectures were to be a special feature of the work 
of our Library. All this would mean various depart- 
ments, such as lending, reference, children's, periodi- 
cal, order, catalog, and lecture. All these needs 
would require suitable records in appropriate form 
on cards, on sheets, or in books. Many printed forms 
would be required. The necessary supplies for the 
whole organization would have to be provided, sys- 
tematically kept in a stock room, and replenished at 
the proper time. 

We were beginning not only with a beautiful new 
building, well located, and with fine new furniture, 
all very desirable, but our books and other printed 

1:190 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

matter would all be new, carefully selected, and all 
valuable. We aimed to have the services on the 
library staff of people of good education, expert 
knowledge, experienced in the library profession, 
people of culture and wide knowledge of books and 
subjects. We were starting with everything new and 
with a new foundation to be laid, and not with an old 
library with an old organization to be built upon. 
Our library system could be planned in the light of 
the best library experience of the day, unhampered 
by an old building and equipment, dead books, and 
outgrown plans that the older libraries find so diffi- 
cult and expensive to modernize. Besides the new 
building, equipment, and books, there was a growing 
endowment fund for support. Thus our new Library 
would begin its course of public usefulness under 
favorable circumstances. And the library manage- 
ment was very desirous to proceed wisely, for we 
wished to meet the expectations of a hopeful public 
and to realize a satisfied and responsive public. 



THE LIBRARY OPENED 

On the twenty-second of June, 1904, the birthday of 
the founder, at a large public meeting held in the 
library lecture hall in the evening, the Rosenberg 
Library was dedicated as a free public library, in 
accordance with the will of the founder. On that 

D92] 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARY 

day the Library was open for inspection, and on the 
following day it was open for regular public use. 

The Rosenberg Library opened with bright pros- 
pects, in a beautiful and stately building centrally 
located and well equipped. The cost of this fine 
building, with its equipment of furniture and books, 
had been up to this time about $200,000, and there 
was a growing endowment fund that at this date 
amounted to nearly $500,000. The people of Galves- 
ton had looked forward eagerly for years with high 
expectations to the time of the opening of their pub- 
lic library, and now they beheld the beginnings of an 
institution nobly realizing their hopes and having 
great promise for the future. In time it seemed that 
this institution might become one of the most impor- 
tant public libraries of the South. 



GETTING THE LIBRARY STARTED 

The institution opened with a library stafif consisting 
of the librarian and five assistants and a janitor. The 
Library began with about 7000 volumes and with 
shelving for 20,000 volumes, and the periodical read- 
ing rooms had about 125 current periodicals. On the 
first day 106 borrowers were registered and 91 books 
were loaned. The open hours were at first short, 
being from 9 to 5 on week days, except Thursdays, 
when the Library was open from 9 A.M. to 9 P.M. 
During the next two years, as the work of the Library 
grew, these hours of opening were gradually extended 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

to twelve hours on week days and three hours on Sun- 
days and holidays, the latter for reading only. 

A large building had been planned in order to pro- 
vide for future growth; therefore the first arrange- 
ment of the departments was somewhat temporary. 
The lending desk was made the central point of over- 
sight, and, in order to provide for giving readers 
access to all the books of the Library, the room de- 
signed for the book stack was used as a general book 
room. Here was to be concentrated the work of the 
lending department, the children's department, and 
the reference department until such time as the 
growth of the Library should demand an expansion 
into other parts of the building not at first occupied. 
The front rooms were used for reading rooms for 
current periodicals. Living rooms were provided in 
the basement for the janitor's family, to be so used 
until it should become necessary to occupy the base- 
ment as the library book stack and for shelving for 
periodicals and pamphlets. 

A handbook of information and rules had been 
issued in readiness for the opening, in order to give a 
general description of the library rooms and the pur- 
poses to which they were to be put, to describe the li- 
brary privileges and facilities, and to tell how to use 
the Library. We expected of the public such conduct 
in the Library as people of good manners everywhere 
observe in a public building such as a library, a 
school, or a church, in contrast to such a public build- 
ing as a store, a hotel, or a railway station. We ex- 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARY 

pected the public to help us to keep the Library rea- 
sonably quiet at all times in order that it might serve 
its main purpose, that of providing educational oppor- 
tunity. We kept everything about the building clean 
and orderly. Our clean city streets and clean sea air, 
in contrast with conditions in a smoky manufacturing 
city, and our new books furnished us an exceptionally 
good opportunity to start well in the care of books. 
The Library took special pains to keep its books 
clean, well bound, and in good repair (daily exami- 
nation, with all necessary cleaning and mending, is 
specially emphasized in this Library), and readers 
were asked to take specially good care of library 
books in cooperation with our plans. 

Much care was used in the selection of books for 
the Library. It was expected that when some ten or 
twelve thousand volumes were on hand they would 
constitute a good all-round popular library. On 
account of the necessity for haste in preparation for 
the opening of the Library, a temporary catalog was 
all that was possible at first, and books were kept 
arranged on the shelves by authors until such time as 
the classification could be completed and the books 
arranged in the more convenient plan by subjects. 
This arrangement was kept until 1909, when the 
books were rearranged in class order by Cutter's Ex- 
pansive Classification System and the card index 
catalog was placed in a public position. 

On November 29, 1904, the Library sustained the 
loss by death of its highly valued President, Major 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

* A. J. Walker. Colonel M. F. Mott, Vice-President, 
was then elected President, John Sealy Vice-Presi- 
dent, and F. L. Lee a Director. 

In December there was held the first library ex- 
hibit. This was a display of holiday books for chil- 
dren, the purpose being to help and encourage par- 
ents in their efforts to select the best books as gifts to 
children at Christmas time. 

At the end of the year 1904 the first public report 
was issued on the work of the Library. There were 
then over 13,000 volumes, about 2300 of which were 
books for children. The Library had already re- 
ceived by donation over 1000 volumes. There were 
3500 pamphlets, the beginning of a valuable collec- 
tion. There were 150 current periodicals, and the 
periodical reading rooms were having a large and 
growing use. Borrowers had been registered to the 
number of 2670, about half of whom were children. 
For the six months that the Library had been open 
the loans for home reading had been over 28,000, an 
average of 182 per day. As a public catalog to use 
instead of the full index card catalog that was to be 
prepared for future use, the Library made use of the 
American Library Association printed catalog of 
8000 volumes. The Library had tried the plan of 
giving the readers and borrowers free access to the 
library shelves, and it had proved to be very success- 
ful and very pleasing to the public. The work of the 
Library was now started auspiciously, and the people 
of Galveston were gratified. 

1:196] 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARY 

BRANCH LIBRARY FOR COLORED PEOPLE OPENED 

By agreement with the Board of Trustees of the pub- 
lic schools of Galveston, the library Board of Direc- 
tors arranged to provide for a branch library for the 
colored citizens of Galveston by erecting an addition 
to the Central (Colored) High School building. On 
January ii, 1905, the colored branch of Rosenberg 
Library was opened for public use with about iioo 
volumes and 21 current periodicals. The building, 
equipment, and books have cost about $6000. The 
branch at first was open about four hours a day. 

The branch library was popular from the start, and 
the open time was later increased to about six hours a 
day and an additional number of books and periodi- 
cals were provided. Conditions in Galveston re- 
quired that the use of library privileges by the 
colored citizens should be separate and distinct from 
their use by the white people, this being the same kind 
of separation of races that is observed in the public 
schools everywhere in the South. It was by means 
of a branch library that the Rosenberg Library Board 
of Directors attempted to meet the problem of the 
proper way to furnish library facilities to the colored 
people. So far as we know, this was the first branch 
library for colored people to be established anywhere 
in the country. The plan has proved a decided suc- 
cess with us. Since our branch was established sev- 
eral other branch libraries for colored people have 
been established in other cities in the South. 

L1971 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

THE OLD PUBLIC LIBRARY ABSORBED 

On January 12, 1905, the Galveston City Commis- 
sion voted to offer to turn over to the Rosenberg Li- 
brary all books of the existing Public Library^ and to 
discontinue that library after February 28, 1905. 
There were said to be 7505 volumes in the Library 
and a registration of 5468. The Directors of the 
Rosenberg Library accepted the offer of the City 
Commission, and the moving of the books to the 
Rosenberg Library building was completed on Feb- 
ruary 15. A very large number of the books of the 
Public Library were too much worn to be of further 
use. About 1700 volumes, however, were found of 
sufficient value to be added to the Rosenberg Library ; 
and besides these, as many as 1500 volumes of United 
States public documents were used to form the begin- 
ning of a collection of public documents in the Rosen- 
berg Library.^ 

^ The Galveston Public Library, as it came to be known in its 
later years, had its inception on September 13, 1870, in resolutions 
adopted by the Galveston Chamber of Commerce. These resolu- 
tions created a library department whose object should be "to es- 
tablish and foster a mercantile library and reading room in this city 
for the use of all persons subscribing thereto." The library depart- 
ment of the Chamber of Commerce was to be managed by a com- 
mittee of three. Shortly after this the committee was appointed 
and organized with J. S. Thrasher as Chairman, James Sorley as 
Secretary, and John Focke as Treasurer. This committee planned 
well for the new Library; they established a Founders' Library 
Fund to be made up from voluntary subscriptions of two dollars 
per month for the term of twelve months. The citizens of Gal- 
veston responded readily to their appeal for funds and for donations 
of books, pamphlets, etc. On January 19, 1871, an entertainment 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARY 

THE LIBIL^RY MAKES PROGRESS 

The will of Mr. Rosenberg mentioned free lectures 
as one of the features of the institution he desired to 
found. Therefore, in addition to the usual library 
departments, the plans of the Board of Directors em- 
braced a system of free instructive popular lectures 
"upon practical, literary, and scientific subjects," as 
stated in the will. The people of Galveston looked 
forward enthusiastically to the Rosenberg Library 
free lectures and were eager to have them begin. In 
the winter of 1905 an arrangement was completed 
with the University of Chicago to send a man from 
their University Extension Department to begin our 
courses of free lectures. This first series of univer- 
sity extension lectures was given by Jenkin Lloyd 
Jones, of Chicago, beginning on March 17, 1905, and 
ending on March 21. The series consisted of four 
literary lectures on Hugo, Ibsen, Tolstoi, and Sidney 

celebrating the opening of the Library was held in Casino Hall, at 
2120 Avenue G, a building that has in recent years been repaired 
and improved to form a church building for Immanuel Presby- 
terian Church. The next day, January 20, the Galveston Mercan- 
tile Library vt^as opened to the public. The librarian was Mrs. 
Emily F. Carnes. The Library was housed in the Hurlbut Build- 
ing, 2214 Post-office Street. 

The Library published its first bulletin in January, 1871. This 
publication outlines briefly the history of the formation of the in- 
stitution and its purposes and privileges. The resolutions adopted 
by the Chamber of Commerce on September 13, 1870, which con- 
stituted the "Organic Law of the Galveston Mercantile Library," 
were published in this bulletin. A list of the subscribers to the 
Founders' Library Fund and donors is included, and also the rules 
of the Library and reading room. In the announcement to the 

[199I] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

Lanier. The lecturer was introduced by Colonel 
M. F. Mott, President of the Board of Directors, and 
each evening at eight o'clock the lecturer was greeted 
by an audience of about five hundred people. Every- 
body was greatly pleased, and this first series of lec- 
tures was a decidedly successful beginning of the 
work of our lecture department. Other lectures were 

public there is the following statement: "The liberality of the mer- 
chants of Galveston enables us to offer you the first public standard 
and circulating library established in Texas." This bulletin shows 
that nearly 2000 volumes had been donated to the Library. The 
terms of membership subscription were established at ten dollars 
a year. A series of lectures is mentioned as a coming possibility.. 

A second library bulletin was published in July, 1871. This 
bulletin shows that the Library had already outgrown its original 
quarters and the Chamber of Commerce had provided more ade- 
quate space by leasing for five j^ears the old Ryland Chapel, the 
first Methodist church erected in Galveston, located on the north- 
east corner of 22d and Church Streets, where the Scottish Rite 
Cathedral now stands. The Chamber of Commerce had thus rec- 
ognized the usefulness and popularity of the Library, and it had 
even gone so far as to suggest a fund for a library building. The 
statement is made that 682 volumes had been purchased since the 
publication of the first bulletin, and that the I^ibrary now had more 
than 5500 volumes. This bulletin records and catalogs the dona- 
tion by General T. N. Waul of the "Waul Collection," comprising 
more than a thousand volumes of standard and carefully selected 
books in various branches of literature. Many other donations 
beside General Waul's are also recorded. The list of "serial 
literature" for the reading rooms makes very interesting reading in 
our day, reminding us of such familiar old-time names as the 
Galaxy, Godey's Ladies' Book, Chimney Corner, Hunt's Mer- 
chants' Magazine, North American Review, Oliver Optic's Maga- 
zine, Scribner's Monthly, Southern Reviezv, and Yankee Notions. 
There are in all fifty-seven current periodicals on the list. Some 
of these are familiar to-day ; a great many of them belong only in 
the dead past. An interesting feature of this bulletin is an appeal 
for material relative to the early history of Texas. Contributions 
of books, pamphlets, and other matter pertinent to Texas history 

II2OO] 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARY 

given the same season, and the following winter a 
still larger number was offered to the public. Be- 
ginning with an expenditure of about $500 a year, the 
lecture department work was extended gradually so 
as to provide each year more and more free public 
lectures. 

On March 6, 1906, a most interesting event in the 

are earnestly solicited. In this bulletin is published a revised list 
of subscribers to the Founders' Library Fund, containing 129 
names. The name of Henry Rosenberg is in this list with many 
prominent Galveston citizens. Both of these bulletins show wise 
and careful planning for the young Library. The bulletins show 
that counsel was asked of Justin Winsor, Librarian of the Boston 
Public Library; of A. M. Palmer, Librarian of the New York 
Mercantile Library ; and of other prominent librarians. 

At the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce on Decem- 
ber 9, 1873, a committee consisting of W. P. Ballinger, John Sealy, 
T. N. Waul, J. S. Thrasher, and A. N. Hobby was appointed to 
consider a plan for converting the Mercantile Library into a free 
public library. It seems that by this time the Library had grown 
until it possessed some 9000 volumes. At a called meeting of the 
Chamber of Commerce, held on January 3, 1874, the committee on 
a free public library reported as follows : "The movement you have 
initiated for the establishment of a truly public and free library is 
both wise and opportune. . . . No city should be without a public 
library. It is impossible that any private collection of this charac- 
ter can command even a fair proportion of the immense number of 
books now forming our literature, which is constantly increased by 
the teeming thought of the nineteenth century. Some access to this 
stream of knowledge is needful to every community whose citizens 
share in the progress and culture of their age. Libraries are the 
crown of every system of education. In schools and colleges the 
young learn the use of books and of the faculties of the mind. The 
intellectual fruit of their own age can be attained only by constant 
study. Education is thus continued from the cradle to the grave." 

The outcome of these meetings was that the Chamber of Com- 
merce offered their library as a free gift to the city of Galveston, 
provided that it "shall be made a free library for the use of all the 
citizens of Galveston forever," and that certain other simple condi- 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

history of the Library took place, A bronze statue 
of Henry Rosenberg, by Louis Amateis, of Washing- 
ton, D. C, which had been erected by voluntary con- 
tributions from the people of Galveston under the 
auspices of a committee of citizens, was unveiled in 
its position in front of the library building. Many 
business houses closed their doors in honor of the 

tions should be met. By city ordinance approved on November 1 8, 
1874, the City Council fulfilled the conditions and accepted the gift 
of the Library from the Chamber of Commerce, establishing the 
new Library under the name of "The Galveston Free Library." 
The sum of $250 a month was appropriated for "maintenance, 
preservation, and increase." The ordinance established a managing 
board of nine trustees, three of these to be aldermen appointed by 
the Mayor, three to be citizens elected by the City Council, and 
three to be members of the Chamber of Commerce elected by the 
Chamber of Commerce. 

The first meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Galveston 
Free Library was held on December 12, 1874, at the office of 
Ballinger, Jack & Mott. The members of the board were as 
follows: Aldermen — Mosebach, Sealy, and Marlow; citizens — 
Ballinger, Waul, and Quin; members of the Chamber of Com- 
merce — Hobby, Walthew, and Beers. W. P. Ballinger was elected 
president and Mr. Beers secretary. For lack of funds for its sup- 
port, the Library had been getting into debt, and in January, 1875, 
the books were moved to the first floor of the Ballinger & Jack 
building at 221 1 Post-office Street, a building that is now a part of 
the store of Garbade, Eiband & Co. Here the Library was reopened 
about the first of March. Soon after this time over a thousand 
dollars was raised by citizens by means of two amateur theatrical 
entertainments. In this and other ways the debts of the Library 
were paid and it went on prospering. The Library was supported 
by appropriations from the city until April 17, 1878, when an ordi- 
nance was passed by the City Council repealing the section of the 
former ordinance under which the support of the Library had been 
provided, and it was then closed to the public. On April 28, 1879, 
the books were moved to the City Hall. On August 7, 1879, the 
Library was opened to the public in the City Hall, with the city 
clerk as custodian. On May 5, 1880, the City Council instructed 

C202;] 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARY 

occasion, and a notable address was given by Judge 

Robert G. Street. 

On May 2, 1906, a fine enlarged photograph of the 

Ruins of the Parthenon, secured from a noted art 

dealer in New York, was donated to the Rosenberg 

Library by the Wednesday Club. This was the first 

of a series of donations to the Library of artistic and 

the city auditor to catalog and arrange the books. This cataloging 
seems, however, not to have been done. 

In April, 1881, an enterprising organization of the city, com- 
posed of young men known as the Galveston Lyceum, requested the 
City Council that they be given charge of the books of the Library, 
under the supervision of the Library Committee of the City Coun- 
cil. The City Council consented to this arrangement and granted 
the Lyceum thirty dollars a month to be applied toward the support 
of the Library. The books were then moved from the City Hall, 
beginning on May 13, 1881, to the Ballinger & Jack building. 
On October 12, 1881, the Library was again opened under the 
name of the Galveston Public Library, and now was in charge of 
the Galveston Lyceum. There were at this time 8155 books and 
3241 pamphlets. Mrs. Mary C. Felton became librarian, an office 
which she held until March, 1902. About 1884 the Galveston 
Lyceum secured larger quarters for the Library and moved it to 
the second floor of the Masonic Temple. Henry Rosenberg was a 
member of the Library Committee of the City Council during his 
term as alderman in 1885. Although the City Council continued 
to furnish some money for the support of the Library, the provision 
was inadequate. On April i, 1889, a committee from the Galves- 
ton Lyceum induced the City Council to make a special appropria- 
tion of $500 for library support. Many donations of books were 
received during these years. About the year 1890 the City Council 
again took complete charge of the Library. In January, 1892, a 
printed catalog of the Library, containing seventy-eight pages, was 
issued. Through the following years the support of the Library 
granted by the city was very inadequate. Miss Lulu Shearer fol- 
lowed Mrs. Felton as librarian. The Library remained in the 
Masonic Temple until 1905, when it was transferred to the Rosen- 
berg Library. 

C203] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

historical value. This first donation established a fine 
standard for further valuable works of this character 
to be placed in the beautiful Rosenberg Library 
building. 

On November i8, 1906, occurred the death of 
Colonel M. F. Mott, attorney for the Rosenberg 
Estate and president of the library Board of Direc- 
tors. John Sealy was then elected president of the 
board, and F. L. Lee vice-president. 

On May 25, 1907, a bust of Major A. J. Walker, 
first president of the library Board of Directors, was 
placed in a prominent position in the southeast read- 
ing room of the Library. This fine bust of white 
Carrara marble was donated by the sculptor, Louis 
Amateis. During this same year a portrait in oil of 
Colonel M. F. Mott was also hung on the wall in the 
same room. 

In January, 1910, the Library began publishing 
for free distribution a bulletin of sixteen pages, which 
has from that time been issued five times a year. In 
the bulletin are printed lists of books added to the 
Library, the annual reports, and other information 
for the public. 

By 1914 the space in the book room had become 
greatly overcrowded; more room was much needed 
both for readers and for books. It was, therefore, 
decided to fit up new quarters in the second story 
and remove the children's department there into the 
rooms originally assigned to that department. New 
shelving and furniture were designed at an expense 

C204;] 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARY 

of about $6000, and beautiful and convenient rooms 
were opened on April i, 1915. This removal of the 
children's department relieved somewhat the over- 
crowding in the book room, leaving more space for 
adult readers and for the books of the open-shelf 
lending and reference departments. From time to 
time shelving for a book stack had been added in the 
basement until space for about 40,000 volumes had 
been provided. 

In October, 1916, the annual meeting of the Texas 
Library Association was held in Galveston. This 
meeting was held in response to the invitation by the 
library Board of Directors to hold the meeting in the 
library lecture hall. The delegates declared the con- 
vention to be one of the most successful ever held in 
the State, and all were pleased at the results of the 
meeting. 



THE GROWTH OF FOURTEEN YEARS 

Beginning with a collection of about 7000 volumes 
of popular books ready for public use at the time of 
the opening, the Library has increased in size, by 
purchase and gift, until it now has over 62,000 vol- 
umes. The pamphlet collection has grown to 38,000 
and has become a valuable one, especially in the de- 
partments of social and historical sciences. The 
number of current periodicals regularly received has 
been increased, as their use has grown from about 
125 at the time of the opening of the Library until 

[205:] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

the number is now about 375, about half of which 
number are donations either from the publishers or 
from friends of the Library in Galveston. During the 
first six months of public use of the Library, the loans 
for home reading were 28,738, averaging 182 a day. 
The use of the Library has steadily increased until at 
the present time the average is about 300 loans a day. 
(The largest day was March 10, 1917, 546 loans; the 
largest month, March, 1917, 10,482 loans; the largest 
daily average in a month, March, 1917, 403 loans.) 
The increase in the use of the Library has been en- 
tirely an increase in the use of books other than 
fiction. The actual number of loans of books of 
fiction is about the same now as it was at the begin- 
ning. The proportion of loans of fiction was in the 
early months about 70% ; now this proportion is 
about 53%. The use of books other than fiction needs 
especially to be cultivated; fiction, except the very 
best of it, gets even more than a sufficient use, pro- 
portionately, without special library effort to promote 
its use. The loans for home reading aggregate now 
over 90,000 a year, and the total number of these 
loans since the Library was opened is about 1,000,000. 
The registration of borrowers for the first six months 
was about 2700. The total registration has now be- 
come more than 21,000, with additions to this num- 
ber of some 1500 a year. 

In its work of serving the public through the pro- 
motion of the reading of good books, the Library has 
always employed methods that have been well estab- 

1:206:] 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARY 

lished by the experience of well-conducted libraries 
elsewhere. The library management proceeds con- 
servatively, making no pretense to originality or nov- 
elty in its undertakings, plans, or methods. 



BOOK-BUYING CAREFULLY MANAGED 

In acquiring books for the Rosenberg Library from 
year to year, we have built up a valuable working col- 
lection of books of all classes intended to constitute a 
well-proportioned popular library, all of which have 
been selected with great care to secure the best books 
representing a wide range of subjects, in order that 
the institution may serve as well as possible the needs 
of all classes of people in the community. In adding 
about 3000 volumes to the Library each year, we have 
opportunity to acquire the most important new books, 
although our Library does not buy as much new fic- 
tion as many libraries do. Our needs are mainly for 
books in the English language, although we have 
considerable collections of literature in French, Ger- 
man, Spanish, and other languages. The Library 
having been established so recently as 1904, our col- 
lection is largely new, and only a very small number 
of books have become out of date, and but few that 
are added are of temporary value. Thus we have a 
good working library with very little dead material, 
a library that is more useful to the public than many 
an older library of much larger size that has on its 

1 207 '2 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

shelves a considerable accumulation of old and dead 
books. 

Special needs in connection with library lectures, 
or subjects of current interest, or subjects that need 
to be more fully represented in the Library, and the 
special needs of study clubs or classes of people, and 
the purchase suggestions of interested readers, are all 
carefully considered. Many very much needed books 
are out of print and can be obtained only at second 
hand. There are opportunities to secure desirable 
books at special prices through lists of remainders 
and second-hand books. It is necessary to duplicate 
many books to supply the large demand, or for use in 
both lending and reference libraries. All these con- 
siderations must be taken into account in the efifort to 
build up a good library w^orthy the attention of all 
thoughtful and earnest people. This Library is to 
be regarded as a popular rather than as a scholarly 
library, but it is possible for us to be of service also 
to the scholar, the specialist, and the investigator. To 
some extent, expensive works can be bought that the 
private citizen can seldom afford, but which it is 
often of great value to have always available in a 
public library. In buying books for the Library, we 
aim to create desirable demands as well as to meet 
existing demands, in order that breadth of interest 
among our people may be fostered. The beneficial 
results of careful book-buying are shown by the con- 
stant calls upon the Library for books on subjects of 
the most varied character. 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARY 



MANY DONATIONS RECEIVED 

From the friends of the Library in Galveston and 
elsewhere many valuable donations of books, pam- 
phlets, periodicals, maps, pictures, and historical and 
art objects have been received. Since the begin- 
ning of the Library in 1903, over 8000 volumes 
have been donated, and also practically our whole 
important collection of 38,000 pamphlets. Among 
the donations, besides the many very valuable and 
costly books, special mention may be made of a con- 
siderable number of early printed books, some quite 
rare; a sixteenth century illuminated manuscript on 
parchment (a duodecimo volume), consisting of the 
Psalms in Armenian; a bound file of the Galveston 
News for over thirty-four years, in 131 volumes; the 
manuscript records of the Howard Association, an 
early Galveston benevolent organization that did a 
great work in the yellow fever times ; and a large 
amount of material of local historical value. Par- 
ticular mention is made elsewhere of the bronze 
statue of Mr. Rosenberg placed in front of the library 
building, and of the marble bust of Major Walker. 
Special mention should be made of donations of two 
clocks, one a large pendulum wall clock and the other 
a fine Howard mantel clock. Especially appreci- 
ated are donations of three large framed pictures: 
The Ruins of the Parthenon, a photographic enlarge- 
ment; A Reading from Homer, by Alma-Tadema, a 

C209] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

large photographic reproduction of the painting; and 
Santa Anna before General Houston at San Jacinto, 
a copy in oil of a painting of historical interest by 
W. H. Huddle, located in the capitol at Austin, Texas. 
Most of the donations have been received from 
residents of Galveston, an evidence of growing appre- 
ciation of the service we are trying to render to the 
people of our city, and of the growing disposition to 
help the Rosenberg Library to be still more service- 
able. These donations are gladly received, system- 
atically cared for, and carefully preserved in our per- 
manent fireproof building, where they are always 
available for the use and enjoyment of those inter- 
ested, including the donor himself. The donations 
of books have been too numerous for any special men- 
tion in this place. Many are very valuable, and 
from some Galveston donors large numbers of vol- 
umes have been received. The Library has gathered 
and is carefully preserving a very valuable and al- 
ready quite extensive local collection of Galveston 
historical material, consisting of books, pamphlets 
(such as reports, year books, programs, and other 
printed matter of churches, schools, societies, lodges, 
clubs, corporations, and other organizations), news- 
papers, magazines, leaflets, prints (such as theatre 
and concert programs, circulars, announcements, 
handbills, placards, posters, etc.), maps, blueprints, 
manuscripts, engravings, photographs, pictures, 
relics, and other historical material. This interesting 
and valuable Galveston historical collection has re- 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARY 

suited almost wholly from donations by Galveston 
friends, and every year it grows by further donations, 
all of which are appreciated by the library manage- 
ment. 

THE REFERENCE DEPARTMENT 

The reference department of the Library has re- 
ceived more than usual attention both in building up 
its collections and in the service rendered to readers 
and inquirers. The reference library has been in- 
creased by important additions until now fully half 
of our collection of books belongs to the reference 
library. There are, in addition to the most used 
reference books such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, 
year books, atlases, and reference books on special 
subjects, many standard works, and good collections 
of periodicals, public documents, pamphlets, maps, 
etc. There is a valuable local collection of Galveston 
material, consisting of books, documents, newspapers, 
magazines, pamphlets, maps, blueprints, charts, 
prints, clippings, engravings, photographs, manu- 
scripts, relics, historical objects, etc. The collection 
of books and other material relating to Texas is an 
important one. The Library has a considerable col- 
lection of fine books, including those in architecture 
and the fine arts and other finely illustrated books and 
fine editions, and there is a good collection of pic- 
tures. The current periodicals have been carefully 
selected, our subscriptions including the best general 
magazines and newspapers and special periodicals 

1:211: 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

embracing an extensive range of subjects, both popu- 
lar and technical. The importance of current peri- 
odicals and pamphlets is seen when it is realized that 
in recent times the results of the best work and 
thought of the present time often appear first in peri- 
odicals and pamphlets. These must be used in order 
to keep up to date in one's own field as well as to keep 
up with current general information. There has been 
an unusually large and continually growing use of 
our Library in the building — books, pamphlets, and 
current periodicals. The studious use of library 
opportunities is very noticeable. The habit of coming 
to the Library is growing. 

The Library has taken special pains to furnish to 
readers and students experienced and educated ser- 
vice in helping them to find the best books, pam- 
phlets, or magazine articles for use in their studies 
or investigations. Through the expert service of the 
reference department we endeavor to serve more 
and more efficiently the serious wants of the people 
of our city. The ability of the Library to furnish 
skilful service to our readers has resulted, after these 
years of steady growth, in bringing to us a very exten- 
sive range of questions relating both to popular and 
scholarly subjects. They consist of all sorts of pub- 
lic questions of a sociological, educational, govern- 
mental, reform, labor, economic, and financial na- 
ture. There are scientific, historical, geographical, 
literary, and art questions in abundance. All sorts 
of technical, industrial, and business questions are 

[212] 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARY 

brought, relating to commerce, agriculture, mining, 
engineering, transportation, merchandising, military 
and naval affairs, the trades, house building and fur- 
nishing, etc. There is an increasing call upon the 
reference department each year for helpful service 
in connection with the study clubs of the city. For 
the use of these clubs, collections of books are often 
put out in the reference room on special shelves, in 
order to facilitate study by the members. The same 
service has been rendered to the public school teach- 
ers, to the high school students, to the Sunday school 
workers, and others. Every year there is an increas- 
ing call upon the Library by the business men of the 
city in order to get answers to questions that arise in 
the daily business life of commercial men, merchants, 
bankers, brokers, engineers, contractors, mechanics, 
manufacturers, and others. With a general library 
of over 62,000 volumes, we are generally able to bring 
forward the printed page that will help any inquiring 
reader toward the answers to his questions. 



EXHIBITS AN INSTRUCTIVE FEATURE 

One of the features of the work of the Library is that 
of exhibits. For years it has been the library practice 
to install from time to time interesting temporary 
exhibits of limited extent. The materials of these 
exhibits have been placed in showcases and on screens 
and bulletin boards in the library corridor, in glass- 

[^213] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

front wall cases, and in the swinging frames of our 
large exhibit stand. Just a few of the subjects of these 
exhibits are as follows: 

Shakespeare rare prints and souvenirs. 

Old and rare books and interesting bindings. 

History of the art of writing. 

Holiday books for children. 

Edwin A. Abbey's Holy Grail. 

Reproductions of great paintings. 

Work of Frederic Remington and other artists. 

Chateaux of France. 

Luther and the Reformation (four-hundredth an- 
niversary). 

Flags and dolls of various countries. 

Photographs, prints, and posters relating to the 
Great War. 

Local history (books, prints, maps, and relics). 

Birds of Texas. 

Our national parks. 

These exhibits have been of interest in a variety of 
ways, literary, artistic, historic, geographic, and gen- 
eral. They have often been especially timely because 
relating to affairs of current interest, or to the subjects 
of the library free lectures. There is always an active 
interest on the part of the public in these small tem- 
porary exhibits, which are in every case intended to 
serve an educational purpose. 



II2143 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARY 



THE LECTURE DEPARTMENT 

As in all the work of the institution, the primary aim 
of the lecture department is educational. It is in- 
tended that these free lectures shall embrace a wide 
range of subjects of general interest, and be of such a 
high order of merit as to attract and interest the 
thoughtful and the studious. Our lectures are in- 
tended to be instructive, real food for the intellectual 
life, and are not to be regarded as entertainments; yet 
they are intended to be interesting and popular in the 
best sense. It is regarded as of special importance 
that a lecturer should first of all have something to 
say that is worth while, and also important that he 
should, in addition, know how to say it in an interest- 
ing and reasonably acceptable manner. We aim to 
enlist in the library service as lecturers able men of 
university standing and other men of distinction and 
power. We aim to invite to our lecture platform 
eminent men of high qualifications in the various de- 
partments of human effort, whose study and experi- 
ence qualify them to bring authoritative information, 
and strong men of broad outlook, who can bring to us 
intellectual stimulus and inspiration. The Library 
encourages reading and study in connection with the 
lectures by displaying its books on the lecture sub- 
jects, including books purchased for the occasion, on 
special shelves in the reference room, and also by 
printing lecture announcements with carefully made 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

notes and reading lists. Lectures are often illustrated 
with the stereopticon or otherwise. Whenever possi- 
ble, a question and answer discussion follows the 
lecture. 

The lectures (now some twenty-five or thirty a 
year) are given during the winter season, in the 
library lecture hall, seating seven hundred people, 
generally in the evening at eight o'clock. Some of 
the afternoon lectures have been given for children. 
That these lectures are highly valued is abundantly 
shown by the well-sustained interest and large atten- 
dance during all these fourteen years. It is very 
encouraging to the library management that the Gal- 
veston public has come to expect and demand so good 
a standard of merit in the library lectures, and it is 
very gratifying that so many take pains to read on the 
lecture subjects both before and after the lectures in 
order to profit more by what they hear from the lec- 
ture platform. The Library has had during the four- 
teen years about 125 different lecturers, and about 310 
lectures have been given, with a total attendance of 
over 145,000, averaging more than 450 at each lec- 
ture. This attendance is unusually large, the lecture 
hall being often overcrowded. The instructive public 
lecture constitutes an important phase of adult edu- 
cation, a subject now much discussed. The free lec- 
ture system has grown to be a very important depart- 
ment of the work of the Rosenberg Library. 



[216:1 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARY 



THE children's DEPARTMENT 

The children's department began its service at the 
opening of the Library in 1904 with about 1600 vol- 
umes. There are now over 6000 volumes. For sev- 
eral years this department had limited space in one 
end of the general book room. Since April, 191 5, it 
has had much larger space in its new home on the 
second floor. Here its reading room, book room, and 
story room have been made beautiful and very attrac- 
tive with new tables, chairs, carved benches, shelving, 
exhibit cases, special drawers and cases for pictures, 
and with wall pictures, pottery, and plants. The 
work of the department has been broadened and 
extended. The loans for home reading have espe- 
cially increased since the department was established 
in its new rooms with larger space and more con- 
venient equipment. The larger number of books and 
the weekly story-hour to encourage their use, the 
reference collection of fine editions, the large school 
collection, the large collection of pictures to lend to 
the schools, the special numbers of the Library Bulle- 
tin, the exhibits, the annual Christmas displays of fine 
holiday books suggestive of presents to children, now 
more extensive and successful than ever before, as 
well as the convenient equipment and the beautiful 
new furniture, have all served to promote the popu- 
larity of the department and greatly increase its use. 
The story-hour is made use of as a means to increase 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

the use of the best children's books. It is not con- 
ducted as an entertainment feature, but as a means of 
promoting the use of books and providing culture for 
the imagination and the moral life. The exhibits in 
the children's department have in all cases been used 
as a means of directing attention to good books. The 
reading clubs also are conducted so as to work toward 
the same end. The loans to children for home read- 
ing in 1917 were 45,263, a 32^0 increase over the pre- 
vious year, and 49% of the whole number of library 
loans for that year. 

The complete separation of the children's depart- 
ment from the lending department, with its separate 
system of registration and separate catalog, has in- 
creased the expense of maintaining the children's 
department, but has added much to its usefulness 
and has been fully justified. In the space of fifteen 
or twenty years the reading habits of a town may be 
very materially improved through earnest effort at 
the Public Library in behalf of the children of the 
town. Children soon grow to be adults, and we con- 
fidently expect to find after a series of years that the 
work the Library does for the children of Galveston 
will have a marked effect in bettering the reading 
habits of our city. We regard the children's depart- 
ment as one of the most essential departments of our 
work. Nothing that we can do is of greater impor- 
tance. 



[2i83 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARY 



FOR PUBLIC SERVICE 

It is the purpose of the library authorities to build in 
Galveston, under the noble legacy of Mr. Rosenberg, 
an institution worthy to be considered an important 
educational centre of the intellectual life and the 
higher interests of the community. It is true that a 
public library has other functions also, but it must be 
recognized as first of all educational if it is to occupy 
a really worthy place of service to its city. It is 
reasonable that the people of Galveston should ex- 
pect to see the Rosenberg Library develop as an edu- 
cational institution with a constant effort to help and 
foster every enterprise making for the best interests 
of the community, so far as they come within its 
scope. 

While at first the modern library, with its multi- 
plying activities and liberal facilities for meeting the 
needs of both the student and the man of affairs, had 
to struggle for recognition because thought by many 
to be a superfluous institution, now, because its useful- 
ness has been so abundantly proved by practical 
experience, it is fast coming to be recognized as a 
necessary part of the educational system of every 
community. The extent of the really valuable and 
necessary printed matter has in our time become so 
great that the private library cannot to-day satisfy 
the reasonable requirements of the well-informed 
and cultured man. The larger collection in the pub- 

C219II 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

lie library embraces all subjects in its scope and has 
many books and periodicals on each subject, general 
and technical, popular and scholarly, thus supplying 
variety of treatment to meet the various needs of 
readers. The public library aims to have the latest 
revised editions of its books, the latest annuals, the 
latest current periodicals and pamphlets, the latest 
printed material of whatever kind — the latest word 
— on each subject. The public library has extensive 
works in many volumes, it has costly books finely 
illustrated, and it has exhaustive special treatises. 
For this world of printed works, the universal tools 
of modern life, the public library is the repository, 
the laboratory, and the workshop of the whole com- 
munity. Such a collection and such working facili- 
ties must be available to the well-informed and cul- 
tured man. The private library is too limited to sat- 
isfy him: he must depend on the public library to 
meet his requirements. 

It is the aim of the library management to estab- 
lish at the Rosenberg Library an ideal of willing and 
efficient public service. This Library should be a 
progressive library of active service to all classes of 
people rather than the older kind of library serving 
mainly as a storehouse for books. Neither building 
nor books can take the place of competent, high- 
minded personality as the principal element making 
for a worthy success. There must be a capable, ef- 
ficient, and energetic library staff, enthusiastic with 
the true professional spirit for the interests of the 

C220] 



DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARY 

institution and the service of the public. Of more 
value even than building, books, and all other equip- 
ment is the personality that is charged with the daily 
duty of making that equipment serve its high purpose 
with real efficiency. 

Year by year, our Library becomes larger and 
more completely organized for the service of the pub- 
lic, and year by year, as new needs and new oppor- 
tunities arise, we strive to increase its efficiency as an 
educational power in our city. Some growth and 
increase in power can be measured in figures, but the 
best of the service that the Library renders to the 
public is of an intellectual and spiritual kind that 
cannot be thus expressed. As the Library grows in 
size and use, we are gratified in being permitted to 
feel that there is in our city a growing appreciation 
of library facilities. The evidences before us indi- 
cate that the Library, during these fourteen years of 
service, has grown into a place of high standing in 
the estimation of our people. The success of this 
institution should mean such wide and beneficent ser- 
vice in many of the things that pertain to the higher 
life of the community, that all may feel as justly 
proud of its work and accomplishment as they are 
of our enduring library building, which is so beauti- 
ful and dignified. 

A library is one of the most permanent institutions 
of civilized life, and to be built well must be built 
carefully and slowly. In this educational enterprise 
there are fruitful possibilities. As time goes on, 

[221] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

opportunities for usefulness open out in various di- 
rections, and, among the many needed undertakings 
of high value, the few most important things must be 
singled out to be done, and all others postponed, sim- 
ply because there is not means enough for all. No 
worthy educational work ever has financial resources 
enough for all its needs. 



[222] 



ROSENBERG LIBRARY 

HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL SUMMARY 

1893 

Henry Rosenberg, merchant and banker of Galves- 
ton, who died in 1893, provided in his will that the 
residue of his estate should be used for the founda- 
tion and endowment of a free public library. 

1900 

Rosenberg Library Association was chartered under 
the laws of Texas, with a self-perpetuating board 
of trustees composed of twenty life members and 
a managing board of seven directors, elected annu- 
ally by the trustees from among their own number. 
Major A. J. Walker chosen President of the Board 
of Directors. 

1901 

Major A. J. Walker, Executor of the Rosenberg Es- 
tate, transferred to the Board of Directors of the 
Rosenberg Library the residue of the estate, valued 
at $620,529.69. 

Library site bought at Tremont Street and Sealy 
Avenue and design of Eames & Young for the Li- 
brary adopted. 

C2233 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

1904 
Rosenberg Library dedicated and opened as a free 
public library, both lending and reference. Begin- 
ning of the annual celebration of Founder's Day. 

Cost of property used for library purposes: 
Grounds, including grading . . $20,000 

Building i55)000 

Furniture and books (7000 vols.) . 25,000 



Total cost at time of opening . . . $200,000 

1 90s 
Galveston Public Library discontinued and the books 
donated to Rosenberg Library. About 3200 vol- 
umes, including 1500 volumes of United States 
public documents, added to Rosenberg Library. 

The Colored Branch of Rosenberg Library opened. 

Rosenberg Library free lecture courses begun auspi- 
ciously. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, of the University 
Extension Division of Chicago University, first 

lecturer. 

1906 

Rosenberg statue unveiled in front of the library 
building. Resulted from a popular movement un- 
der a committee of citizens. 

1910 
Publication of a sixteen-page Library Bulletin be- 
gun. Issued five times a year. 

C224;] 



SUMMARY 

1915 

New children's rooms, with new equipment costing 
$6000, opened in the second story of the building. 



1916 

Lanier property adjoining the Library bought, mak- 
ing the library site a full half block. 



Income from interest, dividends, and rents, 

1917 $29,207.97 

Expenditures for the Library, 1917 . . . 25,118.69 

Value of property used for library purposes, 

1918 $265,000.00 

Amount of the Library Endowment Fund, 

191S 635,000.00 

Total assets of Rosenberg Library Associa- 
tion, 1918 $900,000.00 

Number of volumes, 191 8 62,000 

Volumes added, 1917 2,993 

Number of pamphlets, 191 8 .... 38,000 

Pamphlets added, 1917 2,500 

Current periodicals received, 191 8 . . . 375 

Total number of borrowers registered, 

1904-1917 20,841 

Borrowers registered, 191 7 . . . . 1,689 

C225] 



HENRY ROSENBERG 

Books loaned for home reading, 1904-1917 992,459 
Loans for home reading, 1917 . . . 92>533 

To adults . . . 47>27i 51% 

To children . . 45,262 49% 



Total loans . . 92,533 100% 



Historical classes . 


6,430 


7% 


Sciences and arts 


I3>i54 


14% 


Literary classes 


24,022 


26% 


Fiction and chil- 






dren's stories 


48,927 


53% 



Total loans . . 92,533 100% 

Average loans per day, 1904-19 1 7 . . . 243 

Average loans per day, 1917 . . • • 3^5 

Number of loans for home reading: 

Largest In any month, March, 19 1 7 . . 10,482 

Largest In any day, March 10, 191 7 . . 546 

Largest daily average In any month, 

March, 1917 4^3 

Number of volumes in Colored Branch, 

1918 2,966 

Colored Branch loans for home reading, 

1905-1917 42,947 

Colored Branch loans, 1917 .... 45537 

Children's story-hour attendance, 1 909-191 7 23,800 

Story-hour attendance during the season of 

1917 7i300 

Attendance at 285 lectures, 1905-1917 . . 133,000 
Attendance at 30 lectures during the sea- 
son of 1917 i5j500 

1:226] 



